Recommendation 1 - Refine and renew the D&T curriculum for 11-18-year-olds, aligning it to inclusive innovation and sustainability.

Refine and renew the D&T curriculum for 11-18-year-olds, aligning it to inclusive innovation and sustainability.

Despite examples of excellent practice across the UK, D&T has struggled to find its place as a modern, high-value subject in most schools. Its purpose in the curriculum has also changed over time as new art, craft and design specialisms and vocational routes have been added. Leaders across the sector have worked collaboratively to create visions for the subject and propose amendments to the subject curriculum – but this has not been centrally convened by the government, so has yet to make a national-scale impact. Policymakers should therefore work with industry to:

– Publish the D&T Ofsted Curriculum Research Review (OCRR). This is the only remaining unpublished review of all National Curriculum subjects. When published, this will be the most comprehensive contemporary publication of D&T’s epistemology and an important foundation of subject renewal. The government should ask Ofsted to expedite the OCRR’s publication.

– Convene a cross-sector taskforce to review all design education pathways, taking into account D&T, engineering, art, craft and design, and the four new design-related T-Levels. Building on existing work, the review should create and implement a plan to evolve D&T so that it truly equips students to address global challenges such as climate change and AI, as well as meet HE, FE, and industry needs. This could be co-convened by DCMS and DfE.

– Map opportunities for mainstreaming responsible, sustainable and regenerative design into the curriculum, ensuring D&T is seen as being relevant to students’ priorities and futures, bringing design practice in D&T closer to experience in industry. This should build on existing work.

– Focus on improving the KS3 experience: Consultation with teachers suggests that the most fundamental curriculum reform is needed at KS3 to shift from learning being task-output-oriented to being designprocess led.

– Review examined content at GCSE. Exploring the content and structure of the reformed GCSE specification afresh. The review should consider the balance of breadth and depth in specification content, ways to reduce teacher workload, the potential unintended consequences of the increased (50%) written assesment, and potential value of the 15% examined maths requirement in the curriculum. This should be considered within a holistic curriculum review

– Ensure alignment with wider creative industries needs. Approximately 25% of people working in the creative industries have design roles - from VFX designers in the screen sector to graphic designers in publishing. A curriculum review should ensure D&T supports all creative industries’ talent pipelines. For instance, exploring how the games industry’s trade association UKIE’s proposal for a Digital Creativity GCSE could be met through a renewed D&T GCSE; and ensuring the hand skills and material intelligence vital for crafts industries are nurtured through D&T as they are in the existing art and design specifications.