Category:Accommodating Design and Technology in Secondary Schools

Design and Technology education in schools (D&T) prepares children for life in a technological society by providing them with opportunities to combine practical and technological skills with creative thinking to design and make quality products that meet human needs. Design and Technology education also provides children with opportunities to learn from the achievements of the past, to understand the processes which currently shape the designed and made world, and to acquire the skills to become active participants in building its future.

Specialist teaching and learning areas for Design and Technology in secondary schools are typically organised in suites, or clusters, of spaces ideally with the following taken into account:

• the need to locate workshops on the ground floor
• appropriate adjacency with other related subject areas (e.g. science, art, ICT) to encourage joint working and shared projects
• the D&T suite should have a clear entrance which immediately transmits its educational ethos to a visitor and stimulates interest
• D&T suites require good spaces to exhibit and display 3D objects and pieces of work - sometimes quite large
• Each D&T space must have adequate storage for security and to avoid clutter, in addition to ready access to central materials preparation areas

D&T requires exciting, vibrant, flexible teaching and learning environments in which students will feel confident and safe, motivated, stimulated and inspired creatively to design and make. The provision of the structure, layout and design of any building and equipment used for teaching and learning of design of technology should therefore exemplify the values of good design.