Design Thinking in Education Pilot

Hello All!

Well, with the inspiration I received from Riverside school and my passion for life skills based learning, I have been invited to pilot a 6 week design thinking programme for Year 7's at a local academy in Brighton.

We had our first teacher training session this week, exploring the draft curriculum that the core skills teachers will follow. I am very lucky in that BACA, the Academy in question has a 4 hour slot each week for core skills (humanities, PSHE, citizenship) and so we have 6 weeks of 4 hours to focus on design thinking - unheard of in most UK schools!

The six week programme introduces the idea that young people can take a design led approach to thinking through any project, problem or challenge and create their own sustainable solutions to it. The programme will take the students through:

Research methods
Identifying your "user" and their needs
Analysing your information
Coming up with a "user spec" for the innovation
Using thinking skills to innovate
Identifying the ideas you wish to pilot
Planning for a pilot
Piloting and refining and then sharing your ideas.

In this case, the young people will be challenged to find ways to make being at their schoola more fulfilling and positive experience for the new Year 7's. This is crucial as the Academy has taken over a school in one of the most deprived areas of the country with high levels of long term unemployment and low aspiration. The Year 7's are the first children who will spend the next 7 years in this environment - and they need to take responsibility for shaping how it feels and operates.

The first workshops for students take place on the 3rd May. I will be introducing the idea of creating a culture and the whole process of design thinking. The whole team is both nervous and excited - this is a pilot for us too!

Please keep an eye out for more information about the pilot. If you'd like us to come to your school and help create a really engaging curriculum, please do get in touch - our specialist areas: personal development, careers, enterprise and life skills.