Solar-Active hopes D&T continues to shine

The Solar-Active team is lending its support to the national ‘Believe in D&T’ campaign. Solar-Active has been working with schools, both locally and nationally, for nineteen years, using solar devices and a hands-on ‘let me do it and I’ll understand’ approach to learning. Solar-Active’s work helps to teach young people about renewable energy whilst fostering enthusiasm and attainment in D&T and STEM subjects.

The ‘Believe in D&T’ campaign was launched in reaction to a National Curriculum Review created in January this year, in which the government consults schools about the possibility of major changes including slimming down the curriculum. This move could signal a bleak future for D&T as only Maths, English, Science and P.E would be considered compulsory. Subjects like D&T would therefore become optional and individual schools could choose not to teach them.

David Garlovsky, Project Director at Solar-Active, feels passionately that D&T has a vital role in the future of education: ‘If the government does cut D&T from the national curriculum it would be terrible, not only for the economy, but also for the young people. Our problem solving approach that recognizes that we all can learn the trial and improvement, helps to give the young people confidence and employable skills at a time when there is high unemployment’.

If, like Solar-Active, you believe that Design and Technology should be a mainstay in the national curriculum, then you can join the online ‘Believe in D&T’ campaign by signing their petition at www.believeindandt.org.uk. This campaign is already backed by thousands including household names such as Sir James Dyson, Sir Terence Conran and Dame Ellen MacArthur.