Sustainable Design Day

Year 9 spent the day working on group challenges centred on sustainable design and engineering.

Students worked with Sabotage Design Agency to reimagine toy design, engaging with the recycling process first hand, disassembling old toys and casting new ones. Another group were given old clothes to reimagine, fashioning wonderful new creations, like the Great British Sewing Bee but wilder!

Head of DT, Mrs Fanning – a qualified architect – discussed the opportunities of sustainable architecture, as students planned a sustainable city and hand-modelled their designs, including an impressive Tower Fanning. 

With folding books a department specialty, one group were tasked with applying paper engineering principles to design collapsible structures in response to climate emergencies… (the odd birthday card may also have been made during the session!)

Another group focused on an engineering challenge, making a solar oven, with cardboard and tin foil, that can boil water, as well as testing a solar panel made out of copper plates, one oxidised (the cathode) and one clean (the anode).

Educational charity Little Hands Design also spoke to the whole year group about sustainable fashion, with students making personal pledges. Georgie Rees, from Little Hands, commented: “I was so inspired talking to the students… there were some great ideas of how they could extend the life of their favourite clothes and it was great to see real practical thinking applied to consuming fashion responsibly.”