The CBI join our campaign for a world-class D&T curriculum
The CBI have added their voice to our concerns over the Government’s draft D&T programme of study.
Neil Carberry, CBI Employment & Skills Director commented:
“Employers need young people to be enthused and challenged by a Design and Technology curriculum so that they consider career opportunities in engineering, manufacturing and technology. A curriculum that focuses too much on just basic craft and manual skills will not achieve this.”
You can read the draft D&T programme of study here.
We are urging everyone who shares these concerns to respond to the consultation by 16th April 2013.
For full details visit: www.believeindandt.org.uk
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Elizabeth Truss acknowledges the importance of D&T and the involvement of the Association
Today Peter Luff MP for Mid Worcestershire introduced a Private Members’ Debate today on design and technology and its place in the proposed National Curriculum. In response, the Minister Elizabeth Truss MP said:
‘I personally think that D&T is an extremely important subject that builds on this country’s long history of leading world design, innovation, engineering, manufacturing and architecture, and there has been a chain of Britain’s world class achievement which stretches from the giants of the industrial revolution such as Watt and Brunel, to the household names of modern high tech design, such as Sir Jonathan Ive and Sir James Dyson. I completely agree with that. I also think that D&T has a vital role to play in inspiring young people, and unlike my Honourable Friend I did do D&T at school, and very much enjoyed it as a subject and it taught me a lot of things that have been helpful in my later life. Because I think it does bridge theoretical and practical education and encourages the application of mathematics and science to engineer solutions to real practical problems and it delivers vital practical skills... we do want to get this right, this is absolutely a consultation, I’ve made that very clear to the Design and Technology Association’
You can find a link to the transcript in Hansard here.The transcript for the D&T debate begins at Column 285WH - 10.58 am
Please note, you are being directed away from the D&T Association website, as such we are not responsible for the content.
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Primary D&T ITT Expert group.
The Teaching Agency has advised us that it is bringing together expert groups which will include subject experts, schools and ITT providers to identify any requirements or resources that ITT providers should take into account in order to fully prepare their trainees to teach the new primary curriculum. Richard Green and Gareth Pimley have been invited to join the Design and Technology group on behalf of the D&T Association.
The group will consider the additional needs of trainees to teach the new national curriculum at primary level; for example, enhanced subject knowledge requirements or new approaches that may be suggested by the content.
The role of the expert group will be to decide how best to support the sector in teaching Design and Technology in the new primary curriculum and how the signposting of any materials or resources will support the sector in this.
The first meeting will take place on Friday 22nd March.
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Over 1000 people complete our online poll – over 91% opposed to the D&T programme of study
Thanks to everyone who has completed the survey so far. Over 1000 people have new responded to our online poll on the Government's proposed draft D&T curriculum have been collated - and the results are overwhelmingly opposed to these draft proposals.
After receiving 1025 responses to date, over 91% believe that this draft programme of study does not represent high quality D&T or a positive change to the National Curriculum requirements. The full results can be found here
Respond by 16th April
- It is vital now that everyone responds to the consultation by the deadline of 16th April either by completing a consultation form, which can be found here, or simply by sending a letter with their concerns to:
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and sending a copy to:
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- You can find a copy of our draft consultation response here and template letter to help you here
- If you haven’t had the chance to complete our online poll, you can find it here
- You can also join the debate in our online forum here
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Inspirational speech from Dick Powell on why Design and Technology education matters
At the fourteenth Design and Technology Excellence Awards, held on Friday 8th March at the IET London, Dick Powell, co-founder and design director at leading design consultancy Seymourpowell made a passionate and compelling case for why design and technology education is so important and why the current draft Design and Technology programme of study poses such a huge threat.
"What is being proposed for the new D&T curriculum is hopelessly out of step with the needs of our modern world. I, for one, had long thought that our existing D&T curriculum needed a major review. But what is now being proposed by the DFE is a step back, not a step forward.
"We need a curriculum to engage and inspire children into further education and careers in both technical and creative industries. The proposals are nowhere near ambitious enough - surely, we can we do better than home maintenance skills, when we could be equipping our children with more advanced learning in design, engineering and technology.
"These new proposals are completely out of step with the needs of an advanced industrial economy and our modern labour market; They will not deliver the vital creative, engineering and technical skills needed to rebalance the economy for sustainable growth. Instead, we need a new curriculum which engages with our children, to allow their imaginations to develop and which gives them the tools to do it."
Get Involved
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D&T Association Draft National Curriculum Consultation Response
At the Design and Technology Association we are very keen to represent the views of our members and the wider community in our response to the Draft Programme of Study for Design and Technology. It is very important that as many people as possible respond to the Department for Education telling them exactly what they think about these proposals. You can download a consultation response form here.
It is not essential to answer all sections but questions 3, 4, 8 and 14 are particularly important. In response to past Government National Curriculum consultations, the D&T community has typically submitted more individual responses than any other curriculum area. We would like to continue this and send a strong message to the Department for Education.
You can find our draft consultation response here which you may find helpful when considering your own response. We plan to update this draft response to reflect the feedback that we receive from our members and supporters. We are keen to gather as many views as possible, so please email us at
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and contribute to our online forum here.
Please respond now!
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New campaign poster available online
The new poster, expressing the widespread concerns about the draft Design and Technology programme of study is available now to download and print as an A3 poster. You can find it here.
We need to get the message out about why we must change the new draft D&T programme of study by the consultation deadline of 16th April 2013.
Please put it on your noticeboard and help spread the word in your school.
Remember, if you share our concerns about the draft Design and Technology programme of study you can join the debate in our online forum here
You will need to respond to the consultation by 16th April 2013.
For more details visit www.believeindandt.org.uk
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‘Bacc for the future’ campaigners warn of continuing danger to creative subjects
Bacc for the future campaigners have warned their 40,000 supporters that the battle to save creativity in the curriculum is not over. Even though the Government dropped its English Baccalaureate Certificate qualification proposals in the face of overwhelming opposition from the teaching community, it remains committed to maintaining performance measures based on the subjects chosen for the Ebacc.
You can find a copy of their letter here
With the Michael Gove still insistent that schools should be ranked in league tables on their performance in EBacc subjects, schools are still likely to feel under pressure to prioritise these subjects over ‘non-Ebacc’ subjects like Design and Technology. This risks a two tier curriculum in which applied subjects are seen as less valuable, which is likely to mean that academically gifted young people will be discouraged from choosing creative and technical subjects, with major implications for higher education admissions and future skills.
Bacc for the future campaigners are also concerned, like us, that the major changes proposed to the National Curriculum could damage creative subjects. If this is allowed to happen it could lead to a disastrous downward spiral of decline for applied and creative subjects, in which lower status in schools leads to falling student numbers, lower funding and declining standards which in turn reinforces this lower status.
If you share our concerns about the draft Design and Technology programme of study, join the debate in our online forum and respond to the consultation.
For more details visit www.believeindandt.org.uk
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Meeting with Elizabeth Truss
This morning, in the latest step in our campaign to deliver a modern, challenging D&T curriculum, Richard Green Chief Executive of the Association, accompanied by Louise Davies, Andy Mitchell and Gareth Pimley, met with Elizabeth Truss MP Under Secretary of State for Education and Childcare at the Department for Education to discuss the draft programme of study for Design and Technology.
We presented the initial results of our online survey and the overall feelings of the community. We were encouraged by the responses we received. Our concerns were listened to and the minister assured us that she sees Design and Technology as an important 21st century subject.
We have requested a follow up meeting and hopefully see this morning as the start of a constructive dialogue with the Department.
However, we urge everyone to continue to respond to the consultation. Visit www.believeindandt.org.uk for more information and join the debate in our online forum
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Your views on the draft D&T programme of study
The interim results of our online poll on the Government's proposed draft D&T curriculum have been collated ‐ and the results are resounding.
After receiving 692 responses to date, over 90% believe that this does not represent high quality D&T or a positive change to the National Curriculum requirements.
The full results can be found here.
Thanks to everyone who has completed the survey so far. If you haven’t had the chance to complete it, you can find it here. You can also join the debate in our online forum here
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