At Our Lady Queen of Heaven, our definition of progress is the widening and deepening of essential knowledge, skills, understanding and learning behaviours. We design, organise and plan our curriculum to ensure that children are not merely covering content, but achieving a depth to their learning that enables them to use their skills and understanding in all areas of the curriculum.

Our careful curriculum planning means that we include frequent opportunities for repetition and practise to ensure that essential knowledge, understanding and skills are developed in every subject. Our design gives children time to revisit previous learning, allowing them to gradually develop a deeper understanding of the skills and processes within subjects at their own pace and in the best possible way for each individual child.

Our curriculum is meticulously designed and planned to move the children's thinking to a higher order, deep level of understanding, rather than simply acquiring facts and knowledge.

In Design Technology we widen and deepen the essential knowledge, skills and understanding of learners in a variety of ways. 

Learners’ understand how to keep themselves safe and develop their self-esteem when learning about how things work around them. Learners’ develop their awareness of healthy eating and making choices about food that they are able to share with their families. Through building and developing relationships, learners are able to recognise the importance of sharing tools safely, discussing and improving their designs when working together. Links with the parish and local community enable learners to contribute positively by designing and making Christmas cards for the homeless. As a school, we emphasise the importance of learners’ understanding their role as a citizen in modern Britain; appreciating the design trends constructed across England; being inspired by the creativity of others and having ambitions to develop their own deigns to solve problems. Across the school at Our Lady’s an awareness of learners’ responsibility as a global citizen is paramount in all Design and Technology lessons; how can learners contribute positively to the world around them. Learners’ are continuously encouraged to take risks, solve problemsand have ambition. 

National Curriculum Aims:

The national curriculum for design and technology aims to ensure that all pupils:

• 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 their ideas and products and the work of others
• understand and apply the principles of nutrition and learn how to cook