Design & Technology

At Carr Hill Primary & Nursery School we follow the United Learning Curriculum for Design & Technology. 

Click to view an Overview of DT units planned for the year. 

Click to view Progression in Design & Technology

Principles of our Design & Technology Curriculum

The Relationship Between Design & Technology and Food & Nutrition

The National Curriculum is clear that Food & Nutrition is a discrete part of the Design & Technology curriculum. In one strand of D&T, the aims of the curriculum are to:

• develop the creative, technical and practical expertise needed to perform everyday tasks confidently and to participate successfully in an increasingly technological world
• build and apply a repertoire of knowledge, understanding and skills in order to design and make high-quality prototypes and products for a wide range of users
• critique, evaluate and test ideas, products and the work of others.

However, the aim of Food & Nutrition is distinct:

• Understand and apply the principles of nutrition and learn how to cook.

The purpose of the Food & Nutrition strand within Design & Technology is not to design dishes. While this is ultimately the skill of a chef, there is a huge amount of prerequisite knowledge that needs to be mastered before new dishes can be designed. Chefs need to know about nutrition and dietary requirements; equipment and techniques; source and characteristics of ingredients; an awareness of the principles of cooking (which Ashbee in Curriculum: Theory, Culture and Subject Specialisms (2021) describes as bases, thickening, reduction, seasoning, layering, topping, balance, contrast etc.); and a growing knowledge of tried-and-tested recipes. The knowledge that pupils are taught in Primary school should therefore focus more on this prerequisite knowledge – the basics of cooking and nutrition – and less on the design elements of the subject.

For this reason, we have a separate set of principles for Design & Technology and Food & Nutrition, and a separate set of sequencing documents to show how pupils will progress in each discipline.

The Right Balance of Design & Technology and Food & Nutrition

Historically, schools have tended to teach Food & Nutrition much less frequently than the rest of D&T and, when it is taught, Food & Nutrition has tended to include ‘design’ skills such as surveys and designing dishes. This limits the time available to explicitly teach aspects of cooking.

The aim of the United Curriculum for Food & Nutrition is to ensure that all pupils leave primary school with the ability to cook a selection of healthy dishes using a variety of techniques, and to be able to make choices about what they eat based on values like source, seasonality, and nutritional value. These life skills are even more important in the context of rising obesity and climate change.

The practical and conceptual knowledge of Food & Nutrition needs to be explicitly taught and practised, so sufficient time needs to be allocated to it. Therefore, there is one Food & Nutrition unit per year, and two D&T units per year. This allows sufficient time for pupils to learn about food and nutrition and master important cooking skills, while ensuring there is still time to deliver all the required D&T.

The United Curriculum for Design & Technology provides all children, regardless of their background, with:

Substantive (conceptual) knowledge: ‘Knowing that…’ (Vertical Concepts):

• This is the core technical knowledge and understanding that students need to grasp. It includes the fundamental principles, theories, and concepts that underpin the subject. ‘Knowing that’ involves students being aware of specific facts, information, and ideas related to Design & Technology. This foundational knowledge is crucial as it enables students to apply what they have learned to practical tasks and problem-solving activities within the curriculum.
• Ensuring pupils master core content through the development of conceptual knowledge of designing (including responsibility and design in the past, present and future), making, and technical knowledge (including materials, structures, mechanical and electrical systems) in small steps, and the timely revisiting of this key knowledge.
• Making explicit and deliberate links to other curriculum subjects – particularly science – to ensure that pupils use and apply scientific concepts in a Design & Technology setting at the appropriate time. Pupils also draw on and further develop knowledge and skills first taught in Mathematics, Computing, Art & Design, History and Geography due to the multi-disciplinary nature of Design & Technology.

Substantive (procedural) knowledge: ‘Being able to…’ (Making):

• This focuses on the skills and techniques that students need to develop and involves the practical application of conceptual knowledge. These procedural skills are essential as they enable students to translate their conceptual understanding into tangible outcomes.
• Ensuring that pupils are explicitly taught and have time to master procedural knowledge (including tools, materials, components and processes), safely being able to make and follow the making process (measuring, marking, cutting, shaping, refining, joining and finishing) and think like an engineer to solve problems through focused practical tasks, engineering challenges and making prototypes and products that meet design criteria.

Disciplinary knowledge: ‘Being able to…’ (Designing and Critiquing)

• This focuses on being able to critique (through product analysis and evaluation) and design, applying the iterative design process and allowing pupils to build their understanding and ability to analyse products, apply design values to develop design criteria, design, test, iterate and evaluate prototypes and products gradually from EYFS to Key Stage 2 and beyond.
• Ensuring that pupils know they are designers and engineers, who design a solution to fit a specific user and need; they are not led by outcomes. Pupils should be encouraged to design products using all of the knowledge they have developed across the curriculum.
• Explicitly teaching ways of designing, ways of generating ideas and ways of identifying user needs, to give pupils the tools they need to thrive as designers of the future.

The United Curriculum for Design & Technology provides all children, regardless of their background, with:

Curiosity and excitement about the possibilities offered by Design & Technology:

• Ensuring that all pupils can see themselves reflected in the Design & Technology curriculum, by exploring the contributions made by a wide range of designers and engineers, past and present.
• Opportunities to develop character by understanding the difficulties faced by those designers and seeing how characteristics such as resilience and risk-taking contributed towards success.
• Understanding the contribution that Design & Technology makes to creativity, culture, wealth and the well-being of a nation and that more opportunities exist than ever before due to technological advances.
• Preparing pupils for future careers in design, engineering, manufacturing and technology industries by equipping them with the practical skills and awareness needed to innovate responsibly and sustainably, taking advantage of the new and emerging technology available to them.

Responsibility:

• Pupils will learn to make responsible design decisions, considering environmental, ethical, personal, social, and economic impacts.
• By critiquing existing products, they will become informed and responsible consumers.

Substantive knowledge:

• Ensuring pupils master core content through the development of conceptual knowledge of food sources, safety, hygiene and nutrition in small steps, and the timely revisiting of this key knowledge.
• Ensuring that pupils are explicitly taught and have time to master procedural knowledge, including the cooking skills of chopping, preparing, combining and heating in focused practical tasks.
• Making explicit and deliberate links to other curriculum subjects – particularly science – to ensure that pupils use and apply scientific concepts, such as nutrition and food chains, in a ‘food setting’ at the appropriate time.

Disciplinary knowledge:

• Ensuring that pupils are taught how to make food choices based on qualities like nutritional value; dietary requirements; cost; seasonality; food miles and carbon footprint of production; time to prepare; and quantities. These qualities are introduced in small steps but applied cumulatively so that by Year 6, pupils are able to make decisions based on a selection of them.

The ability, and desire, to cook balanced, sustainable meals for themselves and their family:

• Providing pupils with plentiful opportunities to taste, experience and evaluate a variety of foods using all their senses to broaden their palette and encourage a love of healthy foods.
• Ensuring that the recipes and foods chosen reflect relevant cuisines from the local context, the UK and around the world.
• Providing recipes that are low cost, balanced and sustainable, which can be cooked (and easily adapted) by pupils after school in a family context.

D&T in Our Local Context

D&T is taught in 6-lesson units, once a term (D&T alternates with Art).

The United Curriculum is sequenced so that meaningful links are made between subjects, and the order of units allows these connections to be made.

The United Curriculum for Design & Technology has been adapted for Carr Hill Primary & Nursery School by considering the context of our pupils and the community.

For example:

• Pupils learn about local sustainability initiatives
• Pupils learn about industries and products made in the local area, this is taught in the units where it is most relevant
• Pupils learn about foods that are grown in the local area
• Pupils learn about local technologists and their work, both past and present

Click to view Progression in Food & Nutrition

Implementation

The implementation of the United Curriculum for Design & Technology reflects our broader teaching and learning principles:

For Design & Technology in particular:

• Content is always carefully situated within existing schemas. Every unit considers the prior knowledge that is prerequisite for that unit and builds on that knowledge to develop a deeper understanding of that concept.
• Vertical concepts are used within lessons to connect aspects of learning.
• Disciplinary knowledge is explicitly taught to pupils and carefully sequenced to ensure pupils are provided with opportunities to practice these skills throughout the curriculum. 
• Opportunities for extended, scholarly writing appear throughout the curriculum. These have a clear purpose and audience and, crucially, allow pupils to write as a technologist.

Impact

The careful sequencing of the curriculum – and how concepts are gradually built over time – is the progression model. If pupils are keeping up with the curriculum, they are making progress. Formative assessment is prioritised and is focused on whether pupils are keeping up with the curriculum.

In general, this is done through:

• Books/products/floor books and pupil-conferencing

Talking to pupils about their work allows teachers to assess how much of the curriculum content is secure. These conversations are used most effectively to determine whether pupils have a good understanding of the vertical concepts, and if they can link recently taught content to learning from previous units.

• Formative assessment in lessons

There are opportunities for formative assessment in the lesson slides provided, and teachers continually adapt their lesson delivery to address misconceptions and ensure that pupils are keeping up with the content.

• Low-stakes summative assessment

We also use multiple-choice questions (or another low-stakes quiz) at the end of the unit to assess whether pupils have learned the core knowledge for that unit. These are used formatively, and teachers plan to fill gaps and address misconceptions before moving on.