At Oldway Primary School, the Design and Technology curriculum is designed to allow our children to develop the skills and knowledge required to carry-out practical tasks in an increasingly technical world. Our curriculum provides opportunities for children to create products that they can see, touch and taste for themselves, whilst also providing a motivating context for developing literacy, mathematics, science, art and ICT. 

To achieve this, children learn about the designed world through research and analysis, before learning to design and make functional products with particular purposes and users in mind.

At its core, each unit of work follows the design, make, evaluate, improve and re-evaluate cyclical pattern. Furthermore, skills are taught progressively across the key stages to ensure all children are able to embed and practise the integral elements of the design process. 

Our curriculum is also designed to encourage depth of learning across the three main Design and Technology strands – engineering (including mechanisms, mechanical systems, electrical systems, structures and computer-aided design), textiles and food technology. These strands are mapped across the school to ensure appropriate weighting and to ensure all curriculum objectives are met. 

At Oldway, units of work are taught termly and are linked to themes, where possible, to encourage cross-curricular learning. For example, in Year 5, children create hedgehog homes as part of their unit on frame structures to accompany their work on Living Things and their Habitats. Links to our locality are also emphasised and woven into planning, for example in Year 1, where children learn about the Paignton Pudding during their food technology unit.