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The Interactive Digital Magazine from CLEAPSS
Inside CLEAPSS: How We Support Safer, Smarter, More Creative D&T, food and Art and Design in Schools
Walk into any school workshop, food room, or makerspace and you’ll find a world buzzing with creativity, laser cutters humming, students experimenting with materials, teachers juggling safety, curriculum demands, and the complexity of modern equipment. Behind the scenes, CLEAPSS plays a quiet but vital role in making all of that possible. Over the past term, our work has continued to reflect the variety of experiences that schools provide for their pupils, reflecting the breadth of support we offer to schools.
The CLEAPSS D&T play date
One of our latest initiatives is the CLEAPSS Design & Technology play date, created to give teachers and technicians a space to explore modern equipment, share good practice, and build confidence. We have decided to put this day together to invite teachers and technicians come into CLEAPSS and spend a day getting hands-on with the equipment and facilities we have put together over the past few years. We are limiting numbers to a maximum of 10 as we want to make the day as practical as we can. The first play date is in March, and we will see how that goes, but we would like to be able to run this again in the summer term. We will run an article on it in the next edition of Futureminds.
EMF Safety in the Workshop
As more schools adopt laser cutters, CNC routers, and other high‑tech tools, questions around electromagnetic field (EMF) exposure are becoming increasingly common. Over the last term, we’ve been investigating the potential risk to staff and pupils of EMF exposure from typical D&T and Food equipment. We produced a new guide GL490 Personal electronic medical devices in D&T, food and art and design, which is available from the website.
Food Safety
We’ve been developing new advice and guidance on cleaning and cleaning schedules, and visual guides to support technicians and teachers. These materials are designed to be practical, attractive, and aligned with best practice: GL492 Guide to cleaning in food rooms
Dishwasher Guide
Following a flurry of helpline queries we also produced a new guide on the use of a dishwasher in food: GL491 Use of a dishwasher in D&T, food and Art and Design
Coeliac Disease Guide
We have also produced a new guide on supporting individuals who suffer from coeliac disease: GL497 Coeliac Disease.
Stakeholder Meeting
We recently held one of our meetings at CLEAPSS for a range of people who have an interest in the subject, this included: the DfE, the three main AOs, DATA, NSEAD, The Food Teachers Centre, British Nutrition Foundation, STEM Centre, the V+A, Oak National Academy, the University of the Arts. Unfortunately, a few other invitees were unable to attend. We had some really interesting discussions about all things D&T, food and Art.
We are in the early stages of putting together a plan for the summer meetings, which we are hoping will combine our two groups; the teachers group and the wider stakeholder group.
Why All This Matters
If there’s a thread running through all this work, it’s that CLEAPSS exists to make teachers’ lives easier and students’ experiences safer and richer. Whether we’re advising on EMF surveys, developing a new guide, or helping a school plan a new workshop layout, our goal is always the same: to provide clear guidance that empowers schools to deliver safe and engaging practical education.
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