Developing greater flexibility in the teaching and learning of D&T, food and art

By Dave Parry, CLEAPSS D&T Advisor

Trolley systems for storage and practical work

Over the past few years, we have been working with a range of interested parties on the design and equipping of D&T spaces in schools and colleges.

This work led to the Vision edition of Futureminds, in autumn 2020, which contained articles and information from a whole range of suppliers, teachers and others about the direction they believed D&T may be headed.

The work didn’t stop there. We have continued to work with suppliers, teachers, the DfE, HSE, and others, to explore what the future might hold for D&T spaces. We want to ensure that we are able to support schools when they develop their facilities to meet future needs.

It is too early in this process for us to produce definitive guidance but we thought it would be useful to share some of our most recent thinking with our members.

Over recent years the updates to the National Curriculum and changes to the GCSE specifications have led to a more flexible approach to teaching the subject. Pupils are increasingly expected to utilise a variety of materials and techniques to develop prototypes and models, as well as working outcomes. This requires that pupils need to have access to a range of equipment and processes, which is not always limited to what would be found in a traditional workshop.

Having flexible solutions, such as mobile equipment, that can be moved in and out of a workspace, or having furniture that can allow for different teaching approaches, enables a school to provide pupils with a wider experience of D&T practice, whilst also providing safer work spaces when the equipment is not in use.

The design of workshops, food rooms and art studios is influenced by the equipment and furniture used in these rooms. The relationship between room size and capacity is explored in CLEAPSS guide PS068 - D&T class sizes, room sizes and possible effects on safety (cleapss.org.uk). Recent updated guidance from the Department for Education, updates to the British Standard BS4163, and changes in the type of activity carried out in practical spaces, have encouraged us to consider a future in which different types of equipment and furniture could be found in these areas.

A number of suppliers have started to offer flexible solutions for equipping D&T rooms, including the use of trolleys and/or mobile workstations. In the CLEAPSS D&T room we have investigated the use of trolleys and mobile furniture, as well as smaller, bench-mounted equipment. We have also developed a range of mobile storage solutions for materials, resources and equipment.

We are using our facility with its reduction in fixed equipment and fewer traditional work benches, to investigate the best ways to ensure that activities are safe. We have begun to use our experiences to inform our model risk assessments, and the guidance we provide to members.

Mobile solutions

It is worth reminding ourselves that the British Standard, and other guidance, stipulate that all equipment should be adequately installed so that the risk to the user is minimised.

Where a mobile solution is considered, the trolley must itself be suitable for the intended purpose. Common sense suggests that all trolleys used to support machinery, such as pillar drills, lathes, 3D printer, etc. would have the following features (this also applies to all tables and benches which could be repositioned but are not themselves on wheels of any sort).

They must have the capacity to be secured in their position when in use. This will require that lockable castors or some other device to ensure that a trolley does not creep or move.
They must be stable when in use, so should be manufactured in such a way that the weight of the machine is adequately supported, both when at rest, and when in use.
They must remain stable when being moved, so that they do not present a hazard to those involved in moving the equipment in readiness for use, or for moving into storage.
They must be positioned to provide adequate safe working space around the machine, to provide room for the operator to use the equipment without fear of being knocked or jostled.
They must have the capacity to secure the power supply or other umbilical connections, so that these are not damaged in transit or in storage.

Power services to moveable equipment

Equipment that is supplied with a 13A plug and lead must be safe for use in a school workshop. Initial consideration of this aspect suggests that additional controls to ensure safety might include:

Fitting a key controlled isolator to the trolley which enables the equipment to be locked off, then having a protected lead (such as having a protective sleeve or even, possibly, using armoured cable) that can be plugged into the room supply is one possible approach the requirements for fixed machinery. (see note below)
Stop switches which provide NVOL capacity are needed on any machine with moving parts.
Appropriate and effective guards should be provided, which, in some cases, will be interlocked to the machine start system. Access to moving parts via gear box or belt covers should be secured, so that a specialist tool must be used to open the cover(s).
The addition of third limb switches, such as foot stops, is good practice
Machines which create dust or fumes should be subject to a risk assessment and, where necessary, effective LEV must be provided. (see below)

Emergency stops/implications for room power supply

CLEAPSS guidance advises that any room with fixed equipment must have the facility to have the power turned off when the equipment is not in use.
Although flexible furniture solutions may mean that, at times, there is no ‘fixed’ equipment in the room, the power supply should still be controlled, so that when equipment is in use, the power can be turned off.
Where fixed equipment, including any mounted on trolleys, could be in use, there must be suitable mushroom headed emergency stops sited around the space, so that, in the event of an emergency, the teacher (or other) can cut the power to the machines.

Moving equipment

Trolleys used solely for storing materials must also be stable, both at rest and when being moved. All the materials in them will need to be contained so that they cannot fall off during movement, constrain movement, or strike other pupils and staff.
Lifting heavy items onto and off a trolley poses manual handling risks, which will need to be considered before any action. Standard trolleys are not suitable for moving items up and down stairs and may also not be suitable for moving items across outdoor areas. It may be possible to source specialist moving equipment, for these types of transfer. CLEAPSS has plans to look further into this topic.
Sufficient time must be allocated for technicians, and others, to move items and set up and clear away and to avoid moving equipment and materials when corridors are busy.

Dust/fume extraction

Most machines that are used to work with timber or plastics will generate dust which must be controlled through some sort of LEV system. There are various portable solutions, all of which will require a thorough examination and test each year to ensure that they are working effectively. In general, dust should be collected by devices attached to the machine in such a way that they extract from as near to the source as possible. Dust should be collected by extractors fitted with HEPA filters, rated at least M.

Other aspects that the changes to the design of D&T facilities may impact:

Restriction on D&T class sizes

Part of the reason for having a maximum group size of 20 in a practical space is historical. In a traditional workshop or food room, all the pupils would be using a range of fixed equipment, hand tools and utensils for the majority of a lesson. To ensure that these pupils were able to carry out the activities and move around the room safely the size of the room limited the maximum size of the class that could be accommodated. Historically the number of identifable ‘work stations’ also reflected an expectation for the number of pupils for which the facility was designed and could therefore be expected to accommodate safely.
In new schools and refurbished departments, the overall room sizes may remain much the same as before, but there could be significantly less fixed equipment and furniture. Changes to the curriculum may lead to fewer pupils working on practical activities at the same time. This could mean that there are fewer pupils moving around the room, and less working space required to carry out practical activities. As a consequence increasing the number of pupils in the room beyond the traditional 20, may not have a significant impact on safety.
Managing risk through the use of a rigidly applied maximum number of pupils in a given space was always a pretty blunt instrument, assuming as it did that all lessons presented the same level of risk. This approach lacks the flexibility required by the changing nature of the activities being undertaken in many D&T lessons. Whilst room size may still provide an indication of capacity, the number of pupils that can be accommodated safely is more closely related to the level of supervision required which in turn depends on the nature of the activity and the experience of the pupils. As a consequence a fixed ‘class size’ could well become a largely redundant as a control measure.

One thing is certain, in future, teachers, technicians (working in instructor roles) and others will still need to plan for practical activities and their supervision. One outcome (and one which is already seen in schools) is that some pupils are working on a practical task, whilst others are engaged in related activities, perhaps even in a different space with different supervisory staff.

Flexibility in the use of D&T spaces

The CLEAPSS Helpline often takes queries on the use of D&T, food or art rooms for activities other than those delivered by specialist staff.

Our guidance is clear; only suitably trained staff should supervise practical activities in practical spaces. School managers must consider this when timetabling non-D&T (& food and art) groups in practical rooms. One solution could be to provide some or all non-D&T staff with a short induction programme, on the hazards in such rooms and the potential supervision issues that might be found in them.

With the development of flexible solutions it may be that the rooms themselves will present fewer hazards and risks to those working in them. This would make it easier for non-specialist staff to supervise non-D&T classes. Rooms could, therefore, be timetabled for other classes. To be successful this would require that the rooms are kept in a safer state when not in use for practical activities.

Overall, these developments could have significant impact on the management of the spaces:

If the rooms are to be used for activities other than D&T the rooms would need to be kept tidy and hazardous equipment or materials stored safely.
Keeping the teaching spaces clear of hazardous materials and equipment, will increase the need for well managed storage and preparation spaces. These will, in turn, require that D&T departments are supported by sufficient, appropriately skilled, technicians.

Given the advantages in terms of delivering the D&T curriculum it would be tempting to ask why enabling D&T spaces to be used by other subjects should be a consideration at all. In part the answer is a pragmatic response to the economic demands being placed on schools. Teaching spaces need to ‘earn their keep’. School managers are increasingly looking for flexibility in accommodation and a solution that meets the needs of an evolving D&T curriculum, is future proofed against future changes to that curriculum and can support the teaching of other subjects is likely to present a far more attractive proposition than one that doesn’t.