At Wolfson Hillel, we believe that Design and Technology empowers children to become creative thinkers, problem-solvers and innovators. Our vision is to inspire every pupil to design with purpose, make with confidence and evaluate with curiosity in a rapidly changing world.
We aim to provide a hands-on, engaging curriculum that nurtures imagination while developing practical skills, including cooking. Through meaningful projects, pupils explore real-world challenges, take risks and learn the value of resilience. We promote collaboration and reflection, ensuring that children understand that both success and failure are essential parts of the design process.
We strive to foster a lifelong love of designing and making, empowering every child to see themselves as a capable and creative individual.
D and T is taught in unit blocks to allow for deeper thinking across a week. 2 DT units are undertaken each year as well as 3 cooking sessions- one per term. We use the DT association ‘Projects on a ‘Page’ to support our planning.
Within all units, pupils learn to think like designers and engineers by identifying problems and needs, generating and communicating ideas and prototyping, testing, and refining their work.
They engage in iterative design, understanding that first ideas are rarely final and that improvement is a vital part of the process, with structured opportunities to revisit and enhance their work.
Pupils develop technical knowledge across materials, mechanisms, structures, textiles, and food, gaining an understanding of how and why things work.
Evaluation is used as a key thinking tool, where pupils critique their own and others’ work against clear criteria and use this feedback to inform redesign. They also integrate knowledge from across the curriculum, applying mathematics through measurement and scale, science through understanding forces and materials and computing through the use of control systems.
A typical D&T lesson follows a consistent structure:
1. Retrieval & Revisit
• Recall prior knowledge (materials,
techniques)
• Quick quizzes or discussion
2. Explicit Teaching
• Teacher models:
Techniques (e.g. cutting, joining)
Design thinking
• Use worked examples
3. Guided Practice
• Pupils try a focused skill with support
• Immediate feedback
4. Independent Application
• Pupils apply skills to their own
design/project
• Clear success criteria
5. Review & Reflection
• Evaluate against design criteria
• Peer discussion
• Identify improvements
Progress in Design & Technology is secured through a carefully sequenced curriculum, informed teaching and responsive assessment that ensures all pupils build secure and connected knowledge over time.
The curriculum is structured around core D&T concepts that are revisited and developed across
EYFS to Year 6. These include:
The disciplinary skills of Designing, Making and Evaluation are integrated within every unit.
These concepts are deliberately repeated in different contexts and with increasing complexity
so that pupils:
Assessment in D&T is continuous and embedded within lessons to ensure all pupils make progress.
Key approaches include:
In-lesson assessment
Teachers adapt teaching in real time, for example, re-modelling techniques if errors are common and
providing additional scaffolds where needed.
Common misconceptions are identified and addressed quickly.
As pupils progress through the school:
By Upper Key Stage 2, pupils are able to:
