Our Vision

Our vision is of an inclusive, happy and successful school at the heart of the local community. Together, our families and staff help our children to become confident, independent learners who care for themselves, each other and the environment around them. Be brilliant, be bold, be kind — and together we will believe, learn and achieve.

Curriculum Intent

At Marlborough St Mary’s, our engaging, active curriculum is inclusive, experiential and rooted in our Christian values. We enrich children’s learning through practical, cross-curricular experiences that spark curiosity and resilience, enabling every child to thrive.

We place a strong emphasis on the fundamental skills of talk and reading, ensuring our pupils can communicate their ideas with clarity and confidence, and can access and interpret written and visual sources for inspiration.

We want our pupils to feel a strong sense of connection — to each other, to our school, to families, and to the wider community. Through partnerships with Marlborough College, local businesses, care homes and community projects, children see how design and technology can make a real difference to people’s lives and the world around them.

Above all, we believe that joy should be at the heart of creativity. Our curriculum is deliberately designed to create moments of happiness, wonder and pride — experiences that make pupils smile, laugh and love learning.

Our DT curriculum builds technical knowledge, practical skills and creative confidence over time. It provides every child with opportunities to design, make and evaluate products that solve authentic problems. In doing so, children develop independence, imagination and self-belief — preparing them to take their place as innovative, responsible and compassionate citizens.

Subject Intent

At Marlborough St Mary’s, we believe that every child is a designer, engineer and creative thinker. We want children to use their imagination and problem-solving skills to design and make purposeful, functional products that meet real needs.

Through talk and reading, pupils explore how products are made, discuss design ideas, and reflect on how they can improve their own creations. They are encouraged to use precise technical vocabulary and to justify their design choices thoughtfully and respectfully.

We ensure that Design and Technology connects meaningfully with other subjects such as Mathematics, Science, Computing and Art, so pupils see how ideas link together across the curriculum. By engaging in practical, hands-on experiences, they learn to plan, make and evaluate, developing the confidence and competence needed for the future.

Curriculum Implementation

To ensure consistency, progression and high expectations for all, we follow a carefully sequenced DT curriculum that develops knowledge and skills in designing, making, evaluating and applying technical understanding across all key stages.

Our approach draws on our four curriculum drivers:

Talk

• High-quality talk is central to every stage of the design process.
• Pupils discuss design briefs, explain their ideas, ask questions, and give and receive constructive feedback.
• Teachers model precise technical language, encouraging pupils to use vocabulary accurately and confidently.
• Sentence stems, design discussion prompts and visual aids support structured and collaborative talk in every lesson.

Read

• Pupils read and interpret design briefs, recipes, safety information and case studies of real designers and engineers.
• They explore instructions, diagrams and labelled sketches to deepen their understanding of how things work.
• Reading across DT helps children make sense of the world of design and understand the real-life applications of their learning.
• Key vocabulary is explicitly taught and revisited so that pupils can read, use and understand technical terminology with independence.

Connection

• Children make connections between subjects, between past and future learning, and between the classroom and the wider world.
• Prior learning is revisited at the start of each new project to strengthen memory and deepen understanding.

Joy

• We believe joy and creativity go hand in hand. DT lessons are active, hands-on and designed to spark delight and pride.
• Pupils experience the excitement of problem-solving, teamwork, and seeing their ideas come to life.
• Mistakes are celebrated as part of the design process — valuable steps towards innovation and mastery.

Early Years Foundation Stage

In the EYFS, children explore and use a variety of media and materials through a combination of child-initiated and adult-led activities. They learn to:

• Use different materials and tools safely and creatively.
• Make plans and construct with purpose