Education Consultant
Context In November 2025, the UK Government released the full report of findings and next step recommendations following the completion of its Curriculum and Assessment review. The review itself received over 7,000 contributions, with stakeholder submissions ranging from parents to professional organisations. This analysis of the submissions is a supporting document to the report which …
Continue reading "What the Curriculum and Assessment Review means for D&T"
Since the publication of the interim report by Professor Becky Francis and the expert review panel, many organisations and individuals have come out with reaction to its’ publication. Some have made relatively positive sounds, others have voiced a feeling of deflation or lack of “tangible” actions. It is important to remember that this is an …
On November 15th 2024, the Institute of Physics (IOP) released the big physics ideas, a set of five concepts that every young person in school should learn about to navigate the modern world. This made me think... what would those be for Design and Technology (or whatever we call D&T in our school currently). Although …
Continue reading "The Big Design and Technology ideas everyone should know"
Photo by kyo azuma on Unsplash With a year on year shortage of teachers entering the profession, it is more important than ever to support training and ECT teachers through the process of finding an employer that will give them the best environment to develop into established teachers for years to come.In 2007, the advice …
Continue reading "Finding the right school for you (aka avoiding a bad employer)"
Thanks to numerous recent visits to secondary schools in person, to support design and technology departments, I have been able to reflect on the current ECT 2 year requirement, alongside the damning fact that nearly 20% of ECTs leave teaching at the end of their 2nd year. It made me think back to my early …
Primary design and technology education is on the up. This is the view of those closests to the subject and primary education. This improved activity for ages 5-11 is linked to the potential for Ofsted inspection of primary schools, in which the breadth of curriculum that would include design and technology, could be potentially scrutinised. …
Continue reading "What would we see in a deep dive into D&T in secondary schools?"
National entries for GCSE D&T are now at their lowest point, approximately 82,000 nationally in the UK. If the number of students studying the subject continue on their current trajectory, D&T will no longer remain a viable subject for UK schools. Why are the numbers still falling? Covid-19 caused a radical rethink of how we …
I was recently asked to gather some information for a student on the use of A-Level D&T in degree courses offered at Russell Group Universities. Easy I thought... I set my sights on a quick turn around, so cleared a display board, laser cut a map of the United Kingdom, and stuck it in place …
Continue reading "D&T Decline. Can we blame the Russell Group?"
The new D&T GCSE has not gone far enough. Let’s put this idea out there. Whether you agree or not, one of the issues that still remains is that we, the collective D&T teacher cohort (that is rapidly shrinking through retirement and poor recruitment) cannot agree what it is that we are responsible for teaching. …
I recently met with a teacher who had attended a “Preparing for the New GCSE” inset. The teacher in question was certainly clear on the messages of the course, but by the time our meeting had finished, I was left feeling deflated. If this was going to be the new GCSE we all hoped for, …
Continue reading "Is this the D&T GCSE you were looking for?"
Phil Holton 