The Boot, the Book, and the Case for Consultation

Send me a message.This week I'm digging into curriculum consultations — specifically the one currently open for Northern Ireland's Technology and Design curriculum, which I helped draft and which closes on 30 September.Before getting into the detail, I wanted to clear up something that keeps coming up in conversations, including one I had only today: what a national curriculum document actually does. In England and Northern Ireland, these documents say what should be taught and why — not how to teach it. The how belongs to teachers, drawing on their professional knowledge of pedagogy and how design and technology capability develops over time. That distinction matters when you're deciding what to say in a consultation response.I also share an insight from the international comparative research project I'm currently leading across fourteen countries: unlike England's three-page document, several other countries' policies go much further, setting out assessment, teaching time, and even pedagogical guidance. It's a reminder that "national curriculum" means very different things in different places.Then I walk through the five questions in the Northern Ireland consultation one by one, explaining what each is really asking and how to use the optional comment boxes to make your response count — whether you teach in Northern Ireland or you're watching from elsewhere to see how a consultation like this works.If you're in Northern Ireland, please do respond before 30 September — and talk it through with your department first. What would you want a new curriculum document to protect, and what would you happily see change? I'd love to hear your answer.Why national curriculum debates feel so personalConsultation on the Northern Ireland Curriculum 2028Technology and design: Draft curriculum framework for Public ConsultationSubscribe on your podcast app, share this with your D&T team, and if it helped, leave a review so more teachers can find it.Support the showIf you like the podcast, you can always buy me a coffee to say 'thanks!'Please offer your feedback about the show or ideas for future episodes and topics by connecting with me on Threads @hardy_alison or by emailing me.If you listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, please take a moment to rate and/or review the show. If you want to support me by becoming a Patron click here. If you are not able to support me financially, please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or sharing a link to my work on social media. Thank you!

Send me a message.I’ve been away for a while, and coming back means being honest about why: an Achilles rupture that never healed properly, surgery at the end of July, and six weeks in a boot that has forced me to slow down. Recovery has been “pretty alright” and also a bit rubbish, but the bigger story is what that pause has done for my headspace. Stepping back from the constant churn of design and technology education has given me room to think about what matters, what helps, and what the D&T community needs next.Before the operation, I managed a brilliant trip to Norrköping, Sweden with Sarah Davies for the PATT conference, one of the key international design and technology education research gatherings. I share what it was like to reconnect with colleagues, present two papers, and swap ideas that actually shift practice. You’ll also hear where my research is heading, including an international comparative study of D&T education and our ongoing conceptual work around authentic learning in design and technology, grounded in a literature review and shaped by real conversations with researchers and teachers.There’s practical news too: the fifth edition of Learn to Teach D&T is out, and it’s been a major overhaul. On top of that, I’ve been leading curriculum drafting work for Technology and Design in Northern Ireland, with consultation open until 30 September, and I’m also leading on the drafting of the England National Curriculum for D&T. Whether you love these drafts or hate them, I explain why responding to the consultation matters, what to look for, and how your voice adds weight.If you found this helpful, subscribe on your podcast app, share it with your D&T department, and consider leaving a review. What do you want to know next about the consultations or my research ?Support the showIf you like the podcast, you can always buy me a coffee to say 'thanks!'Please offer your feedback about the show or ideas for future episodes and topics by connecting with me on Threads @hardy_alison or by emailing me.If you listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, please take a moment to rate and/or review the show. If you want to support me by becoming a Patron click here. If you are not able to support me financially, please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or sharing a link to my work on social media. Thank you!

Send me a message.I recently attended an event at Nottingham Trent University that wasn't really aimed at me — but it got me thinking in ways I wasn't expecting. Industry designers were talking to final-year product design students about what it takes to succeed in the profession, and I found myself scribbling notes and asking: what does any of this mean for D&T classrooms?In this episode, I share my reflections on that event and dig into some of the ideas that stuck with me. We're talking about concepts like problem framing, vision, taste and judgment — the kinds of things that experienced designers do almost instinctively. But here's the thing: when knowledge becomes tacit, when you just know how to judge a good design without being able to explain how you got there, it becomes really difficult to teach.This is something I think matters enormously for D&T teachers, particularly those who've come into teaching through a design or industry route. The professional knowledge you've built up is genuinely valuable — but your role in the classroom is to recontextualise it. To select, simplify, and make it visible for your pupils. That's not straightforward, and I don't think we talk about it enough.I also reflect on how easily professional language — taste, creativity, empathy — can become the very clichés we're trying to avoid, if we don't stop to unpick what we actually mean.So here's my challenge to you: what's the tacit knowledge you have that you've never fully examined? And how might unpicking it change what you do in the classroom?Developing “Taste” in D&T: Reflections from an NTU EventSupport the showIf you like the podcast, you can always buy me a coffee to say 'thanks!'Please offer your feedback about the show or ideas for future episodes and topics by connecting with me on Threads @hardy_alison or by emailing me.If you listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, please take a moment to rate and/or review the show. If you want to support me by becoming a Patron click here. If you are not able to support me financially, please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or sharing a link to my work on social media. Thank you!

Send me a message.A curriculum can look tidy on paper while the teacher behind it is quietly thinking, “Am I getting this right?” We sit with that reality and treat it seriously, because design and technology education is full of high-frequency decisions that rarely come with neat, usable evidence attached. When you are choosing content, planning projects, or defending DT to senior leaders, guesswork is a poor tool, yet it is often what we are left with.This week I unpack some of the specific decision problems D&T teachers keep reporting to me: how to know whether pupils are stretched enough, what to do when learning falls flat, how to judge what is stable knowledge versus what needs updating for new technologies, and how to balance breadth and depth. We also dig into sequencing, whether to teach skills, practices, or underpinning ideas first, and how often concepts need revisiting before they become embedded as deeper, tacit understanding.Looking beyond D&T, I explore what happens when progression is unclear and teachers reach for proxies like Bloom’s taxonomy, generic assessment, or ever-more “impressive” projects. I share why that drift is understandable, how it can weaken subject clarity, and why the most useful next step is to collect and name the decisions themselves so we can find evidence that actually fits the discipline of design and technology.If you have a curriculum decision you keep revisiting, I want to hear it. Subscribe, share the podcast with your D&T community, and leave a review so more teachers can join the conversation.Share your curriculum decision problems here: D&T Curriculum Decision Evidence – Identifying Priority Decision ProblemsSupport the showIf you like the podcast, you can always buy me a coffee to say 'thanks!'Please offer your feedback about the show or ideas for future episodes and topics by connecting with me on Threads @hardy_alison or by emailing me.If you listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, please take a moment to rate and/or review the show. If you want to support me by becoming a Patron click here. If you are not able to support me financially, please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or sharing a link to my work on social media. Thank you!

Send me a message.D&T curriculum leadership often feels like making consequential calls with half a map. When time is squeezed, pupils disengage, policies shift, and senior leaders want clear rationales, it is easy to end up relying on instinct or borrowed evidence from other subjects. I wanted to pause on a simple but uncomfortable question for primary and secondary Design and Technology subject leads across England, the UK, and beyond: what decisions are you making right now where you genuinely do not have the research evidence you would want to guide you?I explore what “evidence” means in a research sense, and why D&T can be “rich in practice but thin in evidence” when it comes to demonstrating impact on pupil progress. I share how research summaries, including work shared through the Archer Exchange Network, can clarify what has been studied, while also revealing the mismatch between published studies and the problems teachers are actually trying to solve in schools. That gap matters, because it affects curriculum design, pedagogy choices, and the conversations we have with senior leaders.Using Key Stage 3 as an example, I look at concerns that the national programmes of study feel underspecified and how unclear progression across Key Stages makes sequencing difficult. If D&T capability depends on deliberate development of knowledge and decision-making over time, then sequencing cannot be left to chance or to a string of projects. I also dig into a crucial distinction: is your issue a one-off local challenge, or a recurring structural problem that should shape the next wave of design and technology education research?If you want to help move D&T forward, finish this sentence and share it via the survey or online: “One curriculum decision I regularly have to make in design and technology without strong evidence to guide me is…” If you want to go further, then tell me some more via this form: D&T Curriculum Decision Evidence – Identifying Priority Decision Problems – Fill in formSubscribe, share with your D&T community, and leave a review so more teachers can join the conversation.Support the showIf you like the podcast, you can always buy me a coffee to say 'thanks!'Please offer your feedback about the show or ideas for future episodes and topics by connecting with me on Threads @hardy_alison or by emailing me.If you listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, please take a moment to rate and/or review the show. If you want to support me by becoming a Patron click here. If you are not able to support me financially, please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or sharing a link to my work on social media. Thank you!

Send me a message.The best support in Design and Technology rarely looks dramatic. It looks like a calm voice re-reading instructions, a bigger print-out placed quietly on a bench, a checklist that turns panic into progress, and a student realising they can finish what they started. I’m joined by Sarah, a Learning Support Assistant working closely with a D&T department, to explain what inclusion actually requires when lessons move between food tech, textiles, workshop making, and CAD.We talk about why being attached to a department (rather than trailing a single pupil all day) builds confidence, consistency, and trust. Sarah breaks down key SEND and EHCP basics in plain language, then shares practical classroom strategies: sensory support such as ear defenders, problem-solving around smell in food rooms, and targeted scaffolding that still protects independence. We explore adaptive equipment for coordination and mobility needs, and how pupils can achieve the same outcomes through different routes, including smart alternatives during GCSE and NEA practical work.A big takeaway is processing time. We unpack ways to reduce cognitive overload in demonstrations, use step-by-step photos and tangible models, and structure tasks so pupils can start, sustain effort, and feel the satisfaction of completion. Sarah also shares a research-informed task planner approach (influenced by the Education Endowment Foundation) that helps with time management, keywords, and motivation.Subscribe, share with your DT community, and leave a review so more teachers and support staff can find the ideas and use them in real classrooms.Support the showIf you like the podcast, you can always buy me a coffee to say 'thanks!'Please offer your feedback about the show or ideas for future episodes and topics by connecting with me on Threads @hardy_alison or by emailing me.If you listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, please take a moment to rate and/or review the show. If you want to support me by becoming a Patron click here. If you are not able to support me financially, please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or sharing a link to my work on social media. Thank you!

Send me a message.I’ve been quiet on the podcast, and I wanted to be honest about why. The short version is not drama, it’s the reality of design and technology education work right now: drafting curriculum, managing confidentiality, and trying to protect enough headspace to do any of it well.A big part of my time has been taken up with national curriculum work. I’m involved in drafting the new national curriculum for England, which comes with an NDA, so I’m careful about what I say and how it could be interpreted. Alongside that, I’ve been leading the writing of the technology and design curriculum for Northern Ireland, working with brilliant teachers and learning a lot about how different jurisdictions frame D&T, rigour, accessibility, and purpose.I also talk through something more personal but very common in education and academia: the tension between public-facing work and institutional recognition. After applying for promotion, I had to reflect on whether an independently produced podcast can count as evidence, and what that means when I also believe D&T needs stronger status and leadership, including professorial voices in design and technology education across the UK.You’ll also hear updates on the newsletter (Mailchimp limits and a possible move), editing the next edition of Learning to Teach Design and Technology in the Secondary School, and an international curriculum comparison project. If you’re in England, keep an eye out for the national curriculum consultation later in the year, and please get involved when it opens.If you find this useful, subscribe, share it with your D&T department, and leave a review so more teachers can find the show. What topic would you like me to pick up next?Support the showIf you like the podcast, you can always buy me a coffee to say 'thanks!'Please offer your feedback about the show or ideas for future episodes and topics by connecting with me on Threads @hardy_alison or by emailing me.If you listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, please take a moment to rate and/or review the show. If you want to support me by becoming a Patron click here. If you are not able to support me financially, please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or sharing a link to my work on social media. Thank you!

Send me a message.What happens when a senior leader who grew up in the workshop helps design three SEMH schools from the ground up? In this episoode, I sit down with Paul Quinn to unpack a bold, practical vision for Design and Technology that prioritises access, safety and pride in making. Instead of chasing every shiny gadget, Paul explains why reliable hand tools and a hard-working laser cutter deliver outsized gains for learners who need quick wins, clear routines and visible success they can take home.We talk about Paul’s journey from mainstream D&T to leadership, exploring how accountability pressures squeezed creative subjects and why specialist provision offered a chance to redefine success. He shares the realities of equipping new workshops, including what paid off, what didn’t, and how the team kept the focus on learning rather than kit. Expect straight talking on 3D printers, the value of repetitive processes for regulation, and why textiles—introduced with careful safety planning—unlocked confidence for many students.Throughout, we return to the simple truths that make D&T transformative in SEMH settings: short, well-structured lessons; culturally relevant projects; heavy scaffolding with teacher prep; and outcomes that look and feel good. When students are welcomed into spaces they were once excluded from, behaviour shifts, confidence grows and qualifications follow. This is practical pedagogy you can apply tomorrow—design for success, choose tools that fit your learners, and keep the relationship at the centre.Subscribe for more conversations at the intersection of D&T, inclusion and real-world making, and share this episode with a colleague who’s rethinking their workshop. Leave a review to help others find the show, and tell us: what tool would you buy, and what would you skip?Support the showIf you like the podcast, you can always buy me a coffee to say 'thanks!'Please offer your feedback about the show or ideas for future episodes and topics by connecting with me on Threads @hardy_alison or by emailing me.If you listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, please take a moment to rate and/or review the show. If you want to support me by becoming a Patron click here. If you are not able to support me financially, please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or sharing a link to my work on social media. Thank you!

Send me a message.A noisy workshop can feel like a storm, but what if the path to learning starts with rhythm, not rush? We sit down with D&T teacher Ailis Brown from a specialist SEMH school in Leeds to unpack how safety, trust, and regulation turn short lessons into meaningful progress. From clocks and board games to careful joinery, Ailis shows how a flexible bank of projects meets pupils where they are and gently moves them forward.We compare mainstream pressures with the reality of SEMH: small classes that still stretch a teacher’s attention, 40-minute slots that yield 15–20 minutes of true learning, and the need to plan projects that run in parallel because attendance and readiness vary. You’ll hear how TAs act as experts on the child while the subject teacher guards the craft, and why writing individual objectives on the board can become a quiet briefing that keeps everyone aligned. The standout insight is rhythm: repetitive tasks like sanding and filing act as regulation tools, helping students steady their breathing, settle their senses, and rejoin cognitive work without confrontation.Ailis is candid about shifting aims—from grade targets to life readiness—and honest about the moral weight of results-driven systems. We explore practical strategies for mainstream teachers supporting students with SEMH needs: build calm routines, reduce waiting, prepare fallback tasks that still feel purposeful, and remember the mantra, “you can’t fight chaos with chaos.” Expect takeaways you can try tomorrow, along with a renewed sense that design and technology isn’t just about products; it’s about giving young people a safe place to practise patience, precision, and pride.If this conversation helped you rethink your workshop or classroom, subscribe, share it with a colleague, and leave a review so others can find it. Have thoughts or a story to add? Send a voice memo via Speakpipe or email us—links in the show notes.Support the showIf you like the podcast, you can always buy me a coffee to say 'thanks!'Please offer your feedback about the show or ideas for future episodes and topics by connecting with me on Threads @hardy_alison or by emailing me.If you listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, please take a moment to rate and/or review the show. If you want to support me by becoming a Patron click here. If you are not able to support me financially, please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or sharing a link to my work on social media. Thank you!

Send me a message.Nicola Brown shares her experience teaching design and technology at Springwell Leeds North, an SEMH school catering to students aged 7-16 with social, emotional, and mental health needs. She discusses how building relationships, establishing micro-routines, and adapting teaching approaches helps students thrive in a subject that offers unique opportunities for personal development.Working with SEMH students requires understanding dysregulation and supporting emotional regulationKey Stage 2 (ages 7-10) sessions focus on basic skills like using scissors, threading, and completing small projects Key Stage 3 students access a full workshop with power tools, building trust and respectLevel 2 Construction and Arts Award qualifications are offered to Key Stage 4 studentsThe school practices early transitions to reduce anxiety about the new school yearMisconceptions about special schools are challenged - "it's just being in the right place for you at the right time"D&T education creates meaningful progression pathways to further education and employmentSmall class sizes (10 students with 3 adults) and specialized support enable personalised learningSupport the showIf you like the podcast, you can always buy me a coffee to say 'thanks!'Please offer your feedback about the show or ideas for future episodes and topics by connecting with me on Threads @hardy_alison or by emailing me.If you listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, please take a moment to rate and/or review the show. If you want to support me by becoming a Patron click here. If you are not able to support me financially, please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or sharing a link to my work on social media. Thank you!