The Design and Technology Excellence Award Winners

Published 2nd March 2023

The Design and Technology Excellence Awards recognise the commitment and achievements of teachers, pupils, teacher trainers, education consultants and academics across primary and secondary schools and further and higher education. Nominated and voted for by colleagues or tutors, the Design and Technology Association’s Excellence Awards is open to our members and non-members nationally and internationally.

What do past winners have to say…

We caught up with Trudi Barrow from Sandringham School, St Albans who won The James Dyson Foundation Excellence Award Recognising Outstanding D&T Teacher. Trudi explained, “Winning this award was such a wonderful experience. The ceremony was superb and gave me the chance to meet a lot of inspirational people. I would encourage anyone thinking of nominating a colleague to do so, as it is a fantastic feeling to be recognised for the work we do.”

Networking is a fantastic benefit of attending this event to share insights and gain contacts with Design and Technology leaders across education and industry.

Richard Harris from Raynes Park High School was the proud winner of the Autodesk Excellence Award for Outstanding Industry Engagement. He explains, “The exuberance felt by winning the Excellence Award for Outstanding Secondary subject leader award cannot be measured especially with all the accomplished Design & Technology leaders in the UK.

I was incredibly honoured and overwhelmed to be part of the awards. The news sent ripples of joy to all the teaching staff along with both current and new students starting the school year. It also offered the opportunity for past students to send congratulations. I am still smiling inside when a past student from early on in my career (now an international football player) mentioned that he could not believe he got an ‘A’ grade in my class!”

Emma Hudson from Outwood Primary School reflects on winning the CREATE Education Excellence Award for outstanding primary subject leadership, “It was a great honour to receive this award. To gain recognition of my work, the progress that we have made in D&T over the last few years, to gain the D&T Quality Mark and to be nominated by colleagues was an amazing and rewarding feeling. I would strongly encourage nominating colleagues for the Design and Technology Awards to celebrate and recognise D&T excellence in our schools.”

You can even nominate a whole department for Category 9 recognising outstanding contributions from a team. Last year Kate Finlay and her department at Hethersett Academy, Norwich and they were thrilled with the nomination, “We are so proud of being awarded the Autodesk Outstanding Departmental Team Award. We couldn’t believe it when we found out that we had won. The award has given us as a team an opportunity to work with other teachers and departments which we love. We have also met other amazing professionals in the D&T world.

The community of D&T teachers work together a great deal, so we would thoroughly recommend taking the time to nominate a dept or staff member who is inspirational in their role. Last year there was a range of winners from many different schools across the country. Applications are easy to do and a great opportunity to showcase a brilliant colleague or department!”

Find out more about how to nominate your peers by emailing Neesha.mistry@designtechnology.org.uk for more information or alternatively download our nomination form.