My One Big Thing

For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Jenny Dharmi, and I’m a design and technology teacher at a school in Dudley.

For those of you who do know me, you won’t be surprised to hear that my one big thing is sustainability. In my eyes, sustainability isn’t a limitation. It’s a creative opportunity, and I’ve always been really, really passionate about it. That might mean making bags out of old pairs of jeans, melting bottle tops to make lampshades, or talking far too much about the circular economy, not just to my students but to dinner guests too. And yes, it even means rummaging through the bins, to my husband’s absolute disgust, while confidently telling him, “It’s for a prototype.”

But then I started thinking: how on earth can I not have inclusive design in my one big thing? Through discovering the Make:able Challenge, my students have designed with and for their own friends and family with accessibility needs. One group has even made the finals, and they’re the only UK group to achieve that this year.

One of my other groups included a wheelchair user. Although that group didn’t quite make it through to the finals, it didn’t stop them. The very next day they went straight back to it, iterating and refining their design, because it’s a real product improving the life of one of our own. And the problem was that the Business studies folder did not fit in on a Thursday, so they had to do something about it. Now that’s powerful stuff. 

But then there’s metal. I absolutely love metals. I just didn’t realise how much I loved them until I landed in a room with a brazing hearth. There’s a saying: if you don’t use it, you lose it. And that ain’t happening on my watch. Jewellery, garden products, hairpin legs, borrowing power packs from science to etch copper, inspired by Helen. I love it all.

But I can’t possibly leave out CAD/CAM, especially with the rise of amazing, affordable and reliable 3D printers. It’s taken prototyping to another level, and it’s brilliant for problem solving. You see that look on their faces when something quite simply fits together perfectly.

But there’s also a real gap emerging. Quite a few of our students now own their own 3D printers. But what are they doing with them? They’re downloading ready-made files and printing them without understanding design. That’s our opportunity as design and technology teachers to change how these tools are used, not just in schools but in homes as well, and to bring design thinking back to the centre.

Then there’s design for developing countries, another absolute passion of mine. Thank you to Sam Booth for kindly letting me write about so many of my absolute favourites within the National Oak Academy curriculum. We have the Hippo Roller, the Washing Machine Project, Spider Boot, Better Shelter, Energy Saw, floating gardens, and of course the amazing school uniform that grows with the child. How on earth can we not be impressed by all of that?

And yet I think my one big thing might actually be that moment when a student gets an idea. Or perhaps it’s when they hold a prototype in their hands for the first time, one they’ve developed themselves through lots of iteration. Or a teacher’s absolute worst nightmare: when you think you’ve lost a kid’s piece of absolutely amazing work, only to see them whizzing down the corridor in their wheelchair because they had to use it right there, right now, because it’s making their life more independent. Because design and technology has power. The power to inspire people, the power to challenge perceptions, and the power to change lives.

So, what is my one big thing? Sorry, but I’m not sure I have just one. I think I have many, but they all come back to the same thing: I just love the power of our subject.