“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” — Steve Jobs
At Abingdon, Design and Technology gives children a real-life context for learning. It brings together creativity, practical skills, knowledge and problem-solving so that children can design, make and evaluate products that respond to real and relevant challenges.
We want children to experience the satisfaction of having an idea, developing it, making something with their own hands and then asking: Does it work? Who is it for? How could I make it better?
Designing for a purpose
Our curriculum develops children as creative, independent and thoughtful problem-solvers. They learn that good design begins with understanding a need or problem and involves making informed choices about materials, tools, construction and function.
Across their time at Abingdon, children develop knowledge and skills through:
- structures and construction;
- mechanisms and mechanical systems;
- electrical systems;
- textiles;
- food and nutrition;
- designing, making and evaluating products;
- using tools and materials safely and effectively.
The design–make–evaluate process is deliberately revisited and progressively developed. Children learn to generate and communicate ideas, select appropriate materials, follow and adapt plans, solve problems, test their designs and evaluate their finished products.
The ambition is not simply to make something. It is to understand why it has been made, who it is for, how it works and how it could be improved.
Preparing children for the world
Design and Technology helps children understand how the world around them is designed and made. Through the work of engineers, designers, architects, chefs and other creative practitioners, children encounter people who use knowledge and creativity to solve problems and improve everyday life.
This helps children to see connections between their learning and the wider world, while developing the confidence to imagine themselves as designers, makers, engineers, creators and problem-solvers.
The subject also provides a powerful context for developing our Armour for Life. Children learn practical skills, safe use of tools, organisation, independence, perseverance, teamwork and responsibility. These are not incidental outcomes; they are deliberately taught, modelled, practised and revisited.
Inclusion through practical learning
Design and Technology provides another route into success. Children can demonstrate creativity, reasoning, problem-solving and understanding through practical activity, collaboration and making.
We remove unnecessary barriers so that every child can participate meaningfully, including through adapted tools, resources, modelling, scaffolding and adult support where appropriate. We maintain high expectations while recognising that children may need different routes to reach the same ambitious destination.
Inclusion means widening access to excellence, not redefining excellence.
Children are encouraged to contribute their own ideas, learn from mistakes and recognise that the first solution is not always the best solution. In this way, Design and Technology develops the confidence to take creative risks and the resilience to keep improving.
Living our ARCH through Design and Technology
Design and Technology provides a practical way for children to live our values:
- Aspirations – imagining possibilities and designing solutions that could make a difference.
- Resilience – responding when something does not work and trying again.
- Harmony – listening to others, sharing ideas and solving problems collaboratively.
- Commitment – taking care, working safely and seeing a design through from idea to finished product.
Through purposeful practical experiences, children learn that knowledge has a purpose and that their ideas can become reality.
Design and Technology helps children to belong, participate, create, solve problems and become increasingly independent. It prepares them not only for the next stage of education, but for a changing world in which they will need to think creatively, work with others and find solutions to problems we cannot yet predict.
Belong → Imagine → Design → Make → Solve → Improve → Flourish → Thrive → Achieve.
Design and Technology Progression Document
Please find the link to the Design and Technology programme of study https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/239041/PRIMARY_national_curriculum_-_Design_and_technology.pdf
