Year 1 Design and Technology Medium Term Planning – Structure
Year 2 Design and Technology Medium Term Planning – Cooking and Nutrition
Year 3 Design and Technology Medium Term Planning – Cooking and Nutrition
Year 4 Design and Technology Medium Term Planning – Cooking and Nutrition
Year 5 Design and Technology Medium Term Planning – Mechanism
Year 6 Design and Technology Medium Term Planning – Cooking and Nutrition
Year 1 Design and Technology Medium Term Planning – Mechanisms
Year 2 Design and Technology Medium Term Planning – Mechanisms
Year 3 Design and Technology Medium Term Planning – Mechanisms
Year 4 Design and Technology Medium Term Planning – Textiles
Year 5 Design and Technology Medium Term Planning – Food and Nutrition
Year 6 Design and Technology Medium Term Planning – Structure and Mechanisms
Year 1 Design and Technology Medium Term Planning – Structure
Year 2 Design and Technology Medium Term Planning – Food and Nutrition
Year 3 Design and Technology Medium Term Planning – Food and Nutrition
Year 4 Design and Technology Medium Term Planning – Food and Nutrition
Year 5 Design and Technology Medium Term Planning – Mechanism
Year 6 Design and Technology Medium Term Planning – Food and Nutrition
Year 1 Design And Technology Medium Term Planning – Cooking And Nutrition
Year 2 Design And Technology Medium Term Planning – Textiles
Year 3 Design And Technology Medium Term Planning – Structures
Year 4 Design And Technology Medium Term Planning – Structure And Mechanisms
Year 5 Design And Technology Medium Term Planning – Structures
Year 6 Design And Technology Medium Term Planning – Textiles
Design and Technology at St Mary’s
It is our intent for DT to offer children the chance to use creative thinking and design within a defined purpose and tangible outcome. Through a variety of creative and practical activities, pupils are taught the knowledge, understanding and skills needed to engage in a process of designing and making. They work in a range of contexts through our topic based approach which allows for cross curricular links to be made.
Through the study of DT pupils acquire a broad range of subject knowledge and draw on disciplines such as mathematics, science, engineering, computing and art. Pupils learn how to take risks, becoming resourceful, innovative, enterprising and capable citizens. Through the evaluation of past and present design and technology, they develop a critical understanding of its impact on daily life and the wider world. High-quality design and technology education makes an essential contribution to the creativity, culture, wealth and well-being of the nation.
2024/2025
Year 1
Advent Term
The children in Year 1 have been learning about protective environments such as shelters. They learned from exploring the school and looking at images that shelters need to be strong, stable and protect from many different environmental elements and be fit to meet the design criteria set out to them. As the children were studying forests in Science and English, we decided to continue the cross curricular lesson and create a shelter for forest insects and using materials from home and around school we designed a permanent bug hotel in our forest school garden.
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Lent Term
Year 1 have been learning about mechanisms. Thy began their topic by learning about wheels, chassis’ and axles and how this makes moving objects much easier. They worked in teams to create a moving vehicle with axles, chassis’ and wheels. They continued their learning by using different designs of how to attach axles and wheels to the chassis, as a class we tested and evaluated each design against a set criteria to see which was the best design. Year 1 then designed their own London Taxi cabs ensuring that they met all of the design criteria set out to them.
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Pentecost Term
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Year 2
Advent Term
Year 2 have been learning the importance of good hygiene practices when working with food. They have learnt and practiced many cooking preparation skills such as peeling, chopping and grating. They looked at where different food came from for example different animals, fruit, vegetables and plants. They were all happy to participate in taste testing and evaluating positives, negatives and areas of which to improve on. They ensured their products they designed were fit to meet the design criteria set out to them. Some of their dishes they created were Banana and Blueberry Baked Oats, Vegetable Casserole, Raspberry Eton Mess and Seasoned Vegetable Medley.
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Lent Term
This term year 2 have been learning about mechanisms. They began by making two slider mechanism that moved horizontally and vertically with the use of a force to create movement. They developed their knowledge and practical skills and made lever mechanisms using a pivot as a fixed point. They created and learned that a linkage mechanism combines levers and sliders. Using their knowledge from previous lessons, year 2 looked at Corporation Bridge, our local bridge, that is a Scherzer Rolling Lift Bascule Bridge, they planned and designed a bridge that would lift using a pivot, lever, slider or linkage mechanism to allow boats to pass and return to be used as a road. Year 2 experimented with 2 different bridge designs with a rolling mechanism with rope and a lever with a fixed point that allowed the bridge to separate and connect for cars and boat traffic. Year 2’s final lesson they worked in teams to make a bridge with a lever mechanism that swung to the side to allow boat traffic to pass and reconnected to allow cars to pass over. Finally, they all individually evaluated their work.
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Pentecost Term
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Year 3
Advent Term
Year 3 have been learning the importance of good hygiene practices when working with food. They have relearnt and practiced many cooking preparation skills such as peeling, chopping and grating and how to different cooking techniques can change the taste of the same food item and how freezing can prolong cooked food to be eaten at a later date. They have been looking at where different food items come from and which section of the Eatwell Plate they belong to. They ensured their products they designed were fit to meet the design criteria set out to them. They were all happy to participate in taste testing and evaluating positives, negatives and areas of which to improve on. Some of their final dishes they created were Healthy Eatwell Plate Chicken Tacos and Ratatouille.
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Lent Term
Year 3 have been learning about mechanisms. They began by looking at key knowledge with looking at levers and fulcrums and how effort helps raise a heavy load. They delved into axels, shafts and wheels seeing how they can make an object move. They then made their own mechanisms using sliders and lever mechanisms. The children worked in groups to create a CAM mechanism that would rotate and create a slider mechanism that moved in an up and down direction. Year looked at different shapes of CAM mechanisms and could see that these altered the movement of the flag on top. They then designed their own CAM toppers and had to problem solve in a team to make sure the CAMs worked properly.
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Pentecost Term
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Year 4
Advent Term
Year 4 have been refreshed their knowledge on the importance of good hygiene practices when working with food. They have relearnt and practiced many cooking preparation skills such as peeling, chopping and grating and how different types of packaging provide nutritional and vital information the consumer needs to make an informed choice to enable us to eat a balanced diet. They have designed their own food packaging using different nets to create different 3D shapes and design so that all relevant written and visual information is included. They have looked at numerous different preservation methods and the science behind how each one works to make our foods last longer. They have been looking at alternative snacks to the traditional high fat and sugar items that companies aim at consumers of all ages They were all happy to participate in taste testing and evaluating positives, negatives and areas of which to improve on. Their healthy snack alternatives included fruit skewers, fruity popcorn, vegetable crisps and hummus with vegetable sticks.
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Lent Term
Year 4 have been looking at textiles this term and began by evaluating different fabrics by looking at their different features and properties. They designed and worked with block printing to look at repeated patterns focusing on the theme of nature. They also learnt how to use a needle by first threading a needle and making a hem using a running stitch. The next week they learned three new stitches; backstitch, scatter stitch and satin stitch. The final lesson they designed a small shape and filled it with a satin stitch and chose running or backstitch to sew around the edge. The children finished by self evaluating their work.
Lent Term
Year 4 have been looking at textiles this term and began by evaluating different fabrics by looking at their different features and properties. They designed and worked with block printing to look at repeated patterns focusing on the theme of nature. They also learnt how to use a needle by first threading a needle and making a hem using a running stitch. The next week they learned three new stitches; backstitch, scatter stitch and satin stitch.
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Pentecost Term
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Year 5
Advent Term
Year 5 have been learning about pneumatic machines and how air pressure can raise a heavy load. They began by making a simple pneumatic machine with a balloon and tested to see if they could find the maximum capacity a simple syringe and balloon could raise resulting in a metal school chair. The children then made predictions and evaluated experiments to see the effects of adapting different styles of pneumatic air pressure systems. They designed a stable triangular framework with a lever using knowledge from last year to raise an object. Their final project was to design and make a product that met the needs of the design criteria that could be used in the home using a pneumatic air system. They evaluated their designs identifying positive and negatives which led to a redesign to improve their original creations.
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Lent Term
In this term, Year 5 have been looking at seasonal food. They delved into the benefits of eating seasonal food in terms of nutritionally for our bodies as well as the physical attributes in regards to taste, texture and appearance. They began by sampling foods looking at the qualities and attributes each item had and evaluating it’s characteristics. They looked at four different soup recipes and evaluated and compared these on nutritional value. After this they compared them accordance to which was the most seasonal. As a class we adapted versatile vegetable soup to incorporate four vegetables that are currently in season looking at what preparation and cooking skills we would need to use. They continued improving their knowledge and technical skills by practising good basic hygiene practices, practising techniques of peeling, chopping, dicing and slicing. They learned how to store, label correctly their prepared food in a freezer. The following week they defrosted their vegetables and made their seasonal vegetable soup and designed their own seasonal soup choosing a month of the year and using only seasonal vegetables from that month. They continued with their practical learning by making Honeyed Carrot soup and selected to additional flavours to adapt the recipe which were garlic and paprika. They prepared all the ingredients using good basic hygiene practices and utensil skills, cooked, blended and froze the soup ready for tasting next lesson. Their final lesson, they taste tested their defrosted and reheated soup with bread and completed an individual evaluation.
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Pentecost Term
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Year 6
Advent Term
Year 6 have been refreshed their knowledge on the importance of good hygiene practices when working with food. They have relearnt and practiced many cooking preparation skills such as peeling, chopping and grating and how different processed foods nutritional labels can provide vital information for the consumer to make an informed choice to enable us to eat a balanced diet. They have evaluated and taste tested 3 different types of bread looking at the nutritional values of each and comparing how healthy each one is in juxtaposition which their preference on taste. They created their own tomato pasta sauce and pesto looking at how fresh ingredients can enhance taste and nutritional value compared with processed alternatives. They were all happy to participate in taste testing and evaluating positives, negatives and areas of which to improve on. Their final piece was to create a daily meal plan that would meet a healthy balance diet according to the Eatwell Plate. They made fresh orange juice, egg and cheese omelette, chicken vegetable tacos with salad, vegetable soup, vegetable crisps, fruity popcorn and fruit salad.
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Lent Term
Year 6 topic this term is on structure and mechanism. They have begun by researching case studies and writing information on different bridges and engineers incorporating key vocabulary. As a class we discussed our predictions looking at the 7 different bridge designs prior to testing. Once we all had completed our fair tests, we found as a class our results consistently matched and that bridge strength improved with thickness, shape and the concertina design provided a strong, rigid structure. They discussed key vocabulary around framework and strength and planned in groups triangular rigid bridge designs all with the same size and quantities of materials ready to compete in the best bridge design competition. Year 6 loved the bridge building competition and we had one successful bridge that was able to maintain the maximum load weight, as a class we concluded that a triangular structure provides a vital rigid structure to allow a bridge to maintain an increase in weight and its imperative to have support around the whole edge and base of the bridge. Year 6 finished this term by designing a new bridge using sketches with annotated labels and used cross curricular maths skills by using triangular structures with more resources for the final bridge competition.
