Talking D&T

Designing For SEMH: Teaching D&T With Care

• Dr Alison Hardy • Episode 214

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A noisy workshop can feel like a storm, but what if the path to learning starts with rhythm, not rush? We sit down with D&T teacher Ailis Brown from a specialist SEMH school in Leeds to unpack how safety, trust, and regulation turn short lessons into meaningful progress. From clocks and board games to careful joinery, Ailis shows how a flexible bank of projects meets pupils where they are and gently moves them forward.

We compare mainstream pressures with the reality of SEMH: small classes that still stretch a teacher’s attention, 40-minute slots that yield 15–20 minutes of true learning, and the need to plan projects that run in parallel because attendance and readiness vary. You’ll hear how TAs act as experts on the child while the subject teacher guards the craft, and why writing individual objectives on the board can become a quiet briefing that keeps everyone aligned. The standout insight is rhythm: repetitive tasks like sanding and filing act as regulation tools, helping students steady their breathing, settle their senses, and rejoin cognitive work without confrontation.

Ailis is candid about shifting aims—from grade targets to life readiness—and honest about the moral weight of results-driven systems. We explore practical strategies for mainstream teachers supporting students with SEMH needs: build calm routines, reduce waiting, prepare fallback tasks that still feel purposeful, and remember the mantra, “you can’t fight chaos with chaos.” Expect takeaways you can try tomorrow, along with a renewed sense that design and technology isn’t just about products; it’s about giving young people a safe place to practise patience, precision, and pride.

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Alison Hardy:

You're listening to the Talking D&T Podcast. I'm Dr. Alison Hardy, a writer, researcher and advocate of design and technology education. In each episode, I share views, news and opinions about D&T. This episode is part of my series about exploring different ways of thinking about planning for teaching children with special educational needs and disabilities in design and technology context. And this week I've got somebody on the podcast who's been recommended to me. We've had a quick chat already, and I'm really looking forward to this conversation. So I have Ailis Brown with me, and I'm going to ask Ailis in a moment to introduce herself. So this is going to be a really interesting conversation to give you a bit of an insight. Ailis doesn't have a camera, so I'm just looking at me and having to read the room while we're doing this with uh hopefully getting it right and not interrupting too much. So Ailis, welcome to the podcast. And so can you introduce us by introduce us by saying who you are, where you are and what you do?

Ailis Brown:

So I work in um a specialist SEMH school in Leeds, and I am the sole D&T teacher, although uh we're a three-site school, so I do have colleagues based at different sites, but I'm the sole D&T teacher on site. I've been there over a year and a half, and close to two years, and prior to that I spent 12, 13 years, something along those lines, in uh mainstream education.

Alison Hardy:

Right, okay. So, Ailis, your uh colleague is Nicola, who's also been on the podcast, so she's at another site within the school. Is that right? Yeah, yeah. Okay, so it's really great to have two specialists from S E M H schools. So the first thing I'm gonna ask you to clarify what does S E M H stand for?

Ailis Brown:

It's a good job I know the answer to that, isn't it?

Alison Hardy:

It is, yes.

Ailis Brown:

Social, emotional, and mental health. Um so, in a nutshell, I'd say probably the majority of our pupils uh have trauma. Um, so quite probably quite significant trauma. Um most of them, yeah, I'd say probably most of them, also have things like ADHD and autism as well. Um, but the reason they are at our school is their SEMH need and they all have an EHCP for SEMH. So EHCP educational healthcare plan. So used to be called in old money a statement.

Alison Hardy:

Right. Okay. And in England at the moment, I know that's kind of up for debate about whether the government are going to continue with that or change it, isn't it?

Ailis Brown:

Yes, I think there's very, very substantial uh budget cuts um which are adversely affecting uh special schools. Um at the moment, my school has just announced redundancies as well. Um thankfully the D&T department is currently um unaffected, which is um great news and and probably uh says a lot about how the worth that they place in D&T.

Alison Hardy:

Yeah, I I I'm picking up that unfortunately this sort of situation is happening across partly in anticipation as well, um, and challenges around budgets. It's happening everywhere. But as you said, it's good that your school are recognising the benefit of D&T um for the children that you teach. Now I'm just gonna put a pause in there because you've got bracelets, haven't you, Ailis? Yeah, yeah. Can you be careful about shaking them because it'll pick up, it's picking up on the microphone. That's all right. Okay, okay. That's alright. That was all. Right, let's continue. So you're teaching you're teaching in a school, you've got a specialist department, specialist facilities. Um so you've also said to me before we before we recorded that it's a through school. So you've got children aged between five and sixteen.

Ailis Brown:

Uh right. Because it's based on need, we don't always have so I think the youngest people we've got at the moment is year two. So that would be well, yeah, five going on six actually. Um but yeah, so we um yeah, we we it because they they come to us um when they get their health educational healthcare plan and when mainstream education doesn't work, um is usually a few years in, but yeah, in theory, I guess.

Alison Hardy:

That makes sense from from that makes sense. Okay, okay. And so you you were talking as well about how the majority of the children's lessons are in a a general kind of classroom and they come to you for design and technology. So can you just tell us about some of the classes that you've maybe taught today and um and what you've been doing with them, just to give us an insight?

Ailis Brown:

Um so uh well, one of the things that one of the challenges that we face, um, and me and me and Nicola talk about this quite often, is in a mainstream school, you might teach two projects per year group. Um, maybe one textiles, one electronics, one um resistant materials, so maybe three. Um we teach one project per half term per year group, but because year groups aren't necessarily they're they're put in classes via need rather than year, we have um we have to have uh backup lessons, backup projects as well. So essentially we've got a bank of about 20 projects, which gets really challenging to sort of rack your brain and think of new ones. But this today, this is what made me think of this. I've been teaching a clock project, which is kind of a standard D&T project. I think I did a clock project in the 90s when I was at school. So yeah, I've been doing a clock project with uh one class. Um, I've had a bit of key stage four, they've been doing a bit of joinery. Yeah, I've been doing a board game project as well with another class.

Alison Hardy:

Right, okay. And so when you're when you're planning your curriculum, what are the things that you're focusing on with these projects? What's what's the kind of big idea behind the projects that you're doing with the classes?

Ailis Brown:

Um, well, it's it depends who you talk to. So it's funny, I was talking about this the other day. So my deputy head, um when I first started here, uh quite a lot of the feedback I got was your lessons you you don't have to focus on the academic outcomes.

Alison Hardy:

Right.

Ailis Brown:

You are the the objective is the SEMH um development. Um, and that's something that's really difficult to get your head around as a mainstream teacher because I came from schools as well where it was very much like you must get these exam results. Um I left one school um about five years ago, six years ago, and um the year I left my targets were 80% A star to A in a non uh a non-set, a non-academically set class.

Alison Hardy:

Right.

Ailis Brown:

Um and the pressure we put on pupils to do to achieve that was um it had its moral challenges.

Alison Hardy:

Yes, extraordinary, yeah. So that's a really good way of putting it. There's moral challenges, yes.

Ailis Brown:

But then there is still the so you've got at one point, it's it's working on sort of two tangents at the same time, trying to back off with the academic achievement and the academic objectives, and but then also having at the back of your mind that actually we do want these pupils to leave with opportunity and they need some academic um some academic uh qualifications, some formal qualifications in order to get there. And I think sometimes sometimes the objectives within a class might vary so much. Like I've got one pupil who for months and months he couldn't make it in my classroom. He sat outside under a blanket, a blanket over his head, um, and I think it was just too loud. Um it was this sensory overload, the smells, the noise, the sound, the even I guess like the the vibrations, and it was just too much. And then there was one day he came in and um he came inside the classroom, and I thought, wow, this is big. And I could have gone, right, here's the work, let's start, let's catch you up. But I gave him a board game to play, and it I got him to sit and play a board game in the room, and that was his objective for that lesson. And I remember thinking, like kind of taking a step back and thinking, wow, if I was in a mainstream school and somebody had observed me doing that, it'd be like a lesson fail because that's not the objective, but the objective was different, and I got him in the room.

Alison Hardy:

It's that at that it's almost acclimatizing him into the space, isn't it? So he feels safe and secure, and that's that socialization part of it, I presume. Yeah, yeah.

Ailis Brown:

And it's just baby steps as well. Um, that was an achievement for him. It wasn't achievement within D&T, but in my setting, I guess I'm not just a teacher of D&T, I'm a teacher of SEMH.

Alison Hardy:

Yeah, and and I suppose you could say that the fact that you've got a specialist space like that, that some pupils might find intimidating, uncomfortable, you know, challenging to be in, then that is part of their D&T learning, isn't it? Is to be able to even just sit and be in that space, and acknowledge that there's different types of spaces, isn't there? And be able to manage that um that that different. So yeah, I suppose I'm kind of thinking about it from a D&T perspective that yeah, I can understand why you're saying it's not a D&T objective, but in some ways it kind of is because it's about them being in that sort of space and being able to just be in that space.

Ailis Brown:

Um and they're there, their brains got to be regulated, excuse me, in order for the in order for them to learn. Yeah. They're not gonna learn until their brain is regulated. Um so it's it's one step in the process.

Alison Hardy:

So you have a yes, I presume it's made you think quite differently then about what you're planning. Um so it's much more pupil-centred than it is.

Ailis Brown:

It is, yeah. And we have uh very small uh classes, um, although they seem huge sometimes in the setting. So um, well, class sizes are between eight and ten. Yeah. Um, but that's assuming that all pupils make it to my classroom. So sometimes I'm teaching on a one-to-one basis, sometimes it is closer to to eight, um eight to ten. Um, but yeah, so that makes differentiating for individuals a lot easier. Um and I guess because of that, we are able to ta to um tailor like a bespoke curriculum for them. Um and I tend to have sort of individual pupil objectives uh for each pupil um based on academic need but also um SEMH need. And academic need varies greatly as well. We've got, I can think of one year 11 in particular who's uh still sort of learning phonics. Right. And then we've got pupils that are closer to what they might be, closer to their peers in mainstream as well. So that makes things a bit of a challenge and choosing qualifications as well. We can very low level of literacy. Yeah.

Alison Hardy:

So when when the class comes to you, how how long are their lessons?

Ailis Brown:

Um, they are a maximum of 40 minutes. Often 40 minutes is too long for them. Okay. And those 40 minutes does include their transition time as well. So going down to their classroom, collecting them, uh, and bringing them up. So yeah, they are, I'd say probably learning time. We're looking at maybe 15, 20 minutes.

Alison Hardy:

Okay, okay, that's interesting because I I thought it might have been longer because that would have been more um how do I put it? I'm gonna I'm gonna use all the wrong language, but it they would have they would have been calmer because they were there longer. Does that make sense?

Ailis Brown:

Uh yeah, but it's it's kind of probably the opposite.

Alison Hardy:

Right, okay. That's I I'm I'm I'm I'm wanting to have my assumptions challenged because I I kind of, you know, this is this is all new to me, so I'm asking some very naive questions, I'm sure.

Ailis Brown:

Yeah, so generally, um not everybody, and there are some people that could spend probably all day in D&T if they were allowed to. Um but yeah, generally as a rule of thumb, uh concentration waivers after about sort of 20-25 minutes.

Alison Hardy:

Right. Okay.

Ailis Brown:

Yeah, that's generally how long how long we last.

Alison Hardy:

And do you have additional support in in your lessons as well? Yeah.

Ailis Brown:

So usually um we operate on about a one to one to four ratio, I think, most of the time.

Alison Hardy:

Right.

Ailis Brown:

Um so it'd be usually it'd be me and a and a TA as well. Um yeah. And we have um care team as well, so care team are sort of our support staff um who you know call if if things blow up.

Alison Hardy:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's completely. So so how do you how do you work with the TA then? Do you do you prep them beforehand? Do you have conversations with them about planning what you might teach with the different individual children?

Ailis Brown:

Time to do that individually. So the way I tend to do it is is I tend to have individual objectives written on the board for each pupil, which in reality are more for the TA than they are for the pupil. Um, but it gives them a starting point so that they're not waiting to ask me. So it is kind of my way of instantly briefing the TA without actually having to spend the time having that conversation with the TA.

Alison Hardy:

Right. Okay, and so does the TA are they the TA with the same children throughout the day? So they have a right, okay. They're the familiar face to them. Right.

Ailis Brown:

Um yeah, so they're the familiar face to them, and and often I'm looking to them for advice with the pupils, and if that makes sense, curriculum, but the the pupils and knowing when to intervene, when a pupil needs that support, when that pupil needs me to step back, because sometimes you know they might they might need space from me. Um so yeah, they're they're the they're they're they're the experts when it comes to right.

Alison Hardy:

Okay, so so together you work really well. So the the TA is the expert about the child and their needs and helping sort of manage what's what's what the child can the people can cope with when you're coming in as a subject, subject specialist. So I'm just gonna talk really practically then. So if the children are with you for say it's a 40 40 minute lesson, but by the time you've brought them into the room and then the time that they have to transition onto the next lesson, you might have them for 15, 20, maybe 25 at most. Yeah. So if you've got a class of eight, how how does the lesson start then?

Ailis Brown:

Um occasionally I do sort of a settling activity, which I guess you might once upon a time have called a starter, but um, we don't we don't call things starters anymore, actually. Um but generally um because we've got well with D&T it's difficult, isn't it? Because if you've got a 15-minute slot or a 20-minute slot, in maybe an I don't know, a more sort of um English or or a subject like that, you can achieve quite a bit in that time and you could break that chunk that further. But in D&T, by the time you've got your work out and got your tools out, just made sure they understand how to use them safely. There isn't as much time for chunking and sectioning the actual tasks. So generally, um we come in and we do get straight to a task. Um I think in in my setting as well, pupils tend to be even more so at different parts in an actual project because attendance is more sporadic, uh concentration, abilities are more um varied, yeah. Yeah, varied. Um and uh pupils' engagement is more varied. So that's a bit of a juggle at times trying to sort of start some people off at the projects, like some people and pupils are mid-flow, and some pupils are kind of towards the end of it, and there is different tasks. So I think I have to plan my my projects quite strategically and think about um the actual processes in there and make sure that actually simultaneously I can manage the first process in this project whilst also doing the last process. Um otherwise um SEMH pupils aren't always the most patient um they struggle with a as a as a sort of generic stereotype, um, they can struggle with waiting for attention. So we don't want to keep them waiting for we want them to be um multiple tasks to do, but then I do tend to have sort of quite therapeutic like colouring activities sort of at the sides that TAs can kind of get for them if if needed. I'm probably going off on a bit of a tangent.

Alison Hardy:

No, no, no, it's just really interesting to understand about the dynamic of the room and and how you, as the class teacher with your specialist knowledge, how you're having to accommodate and flex in the moment, as well as thinking, you know, the bigger picture about these children making progress over time, whilst their attendance might be erratic for all sorts of reasons. Or how you then, you know, so no, you're not going off at tangent at all. And I'm finding it, I'm finding it really interesting about how how it, you know, and trying to get pictures of of how it is. Does that make sense? And I think your your insight into because obviously not all children um with social, emotional, and mental health issues will be in a specialist school. So some teachers who are listening will find that children with those different challenges and traumas, as you say, will be in mainstream schools. So it's it's it's trying to kind of unpick a little bit about what you're doing in a dedicated space that a teacher in a mainstream school might might be able to um pick up from you, if that makes sense.

Ailis Brown:

Yeah, absolutely. Um, and one thing actually that that so we had some training um a while back and it was whole school training, so um all subject areas, all class teachers, all TAs, and um it was about uh rhythmic uh rhythmic um therapy, I guess. And they used the example of of one child who when he was dysregulated, they got him a a table tennis uh paddle, and he he'd just stand and bounce the paddle like on his own um sorry, bounce the ball on the paddle on his own. And it was that rhythmic sort of thing that kind of uh settled him. It was a bit like a a light bulb for me because I thought, well, that basically is D&T. Like most things that we do in D&T are quite rhythmic, sanding, soaring.

Alison Hardy:

And his practical activity tends to be repetitive.

Ailis Brown:

And I had a pupil, he was actually a primary school pupil coming to the class and was just absolutely overwhelmed. And he was just he was on the verge of going into crisis and he was running around and we couldn't settle him. And I gave him a block of wood and I just said, Do you think he found that really smooth for me? And it was just that process just kind of calmed him down and giving him kind of a job to do, and he kind of looked at me really skeptically. He definitely knew like I was work on my story a bit there. Yeah, it's a it's a keep me busy activity, yeah. But it calmed him, and I thought about it, and I've I think pupils kind of do that for themselves in D&T sometimes. I've got one pupil who he's got autism, um, and he is the most precise pupil ever. He was making this set of coasters um and a little holder for them, and um just the amount of sanding that this boy did on these coasters, honestly, they were the most perfect, and then he'd he'd get down and look at them and just check if they were like exactly the same size. But I realised that's what he was doing. He was using that kind of and it was the the slowest sanding, the slowest, most soothing sanding he was cut he you've ever seen, but he was doing that as well, and I guess it's almost almost a form of like stimming, I guess. Yeah. Um that it really works in my subject with without me really having to do anything either. It is kind of it just is is detailed, isn't it?

Alison Hardy:

Yes, that's really interesting, yeah. That's really interesting. That idea about rhythm as as calming. Yeah, and I think I think yeah, I would imagine that some D ⁇ T teachers might might be able to kind of build that into part of their practice if they've got children who who have those, you know, just need need somewhere to kind of have a rhythm to kind of almost find a beat, isn't it? I suppose. I suppose so from for you moving from mainstream into uh SEMH school, what what have you what have you seen as the big differences? And then I'm gonna ask you to think about if you then went back into mainstream school, yeah what would you take from where you are now?

Ailis Brown:

Um so the big difference, the biggest difference, I guess, and I think I've already touched a bit is just the objective. So what my objective as a teacher is for these pupils. And I I worked in well, not my most recent school, but the school I worked in before that was very results driven, inflated target grades, um massive pressure from SLT onto staff, which then got transferred onto pupils. And in SCMH, it's that's not the objective. The objective is to I guess prepare them for post-16 life, and part of that is getting qualifications, as I said, but it's not that's not necessarily what we're there for. We're there to give them that experience rather than it be drummed into you that you need results. Um and I think that's that's the biggest difference. And then if I went back into mainstream, um I don't know because that pressure would be back there again, wouldn't it? Not I not every school is the same and probably there, but there is still an element of it. Mainstream schools are judged on results on progress 8, and there is no getting around that, and that has to be transferred down somehow.

Alison Hardy:

Um but I suppose I suppose more as if you were thinking about in a classroom. Yeah. And let's say you've got children that are in your mainstream classroom with SEMH needs. Yeah. What do you think you would do differently now you've now you've you've gained this specialist knowledge?

Ailis Brown:

I think I think now I understand that it's not always chosen behaviour. Sometimes it is chosen behaviour, and we do get some chosen behaviours. And I I think I was always aware of that, but I don't think I understood it. And I think and I can think, I can picture particular pupils in my head from mainstream education who I probably failed, and I had I guess little choice in the matter because lack of support staff, behaviour systems that were uh generalized and uh no leeway uh inappropriate for those children. Inappropriate for those children, but I think I'd fight their corner a little bit more. I think if I'd um tailor the behaviour system in my own classroom as difficult as it is to their needs um as much as I could. Yeah, and I think I'd just try and be a little bit more compassionate and and try and build more relationships. It's tricky though, because mainstream schools aren't often set up in terms of staffing and shows and things, but I think yeah, I try and understand.

Alison Hardy:

I think I think that insight that you've shared there is really powerful about that the behaviour they sometimes cannot control. And I think in a mainstream school, and I um you may you've made me think about in a mainstream school I would make assumptions that it was it could be managed. I mean they could control it. And quite often they can't yeah, and therefore almost as a teacher, by my reaction, I would raise the pressure.

Ailis Brown:

Yeah. And actually my head teacher's got a uh um a phrase that she uses that you can't fight chaos with chaos. Um so when they've got that chaos, actually what they need is the calm from you. And that's difficult when you know you're you're juggling 30 pupils or whatever, but that is what they need, and the they don't need yeah, they don't they don't need that raise pressure from you. They need almost to to retract.

Alison Hardy:

Yeah. Um and give them space.

Ailis Brown:

Yeah. Yeah.

Alison Hardy:

Yeah. Yeah, you're making me think um of somebody I knew who was a teaching assistant in my lessons. And they were they they worked with a uh a a pupil who had Terex Asperger Asperger's ADHD.

Ailis Brown:

Yeah.

Alison Hardy:

Um dyspraxia. And compared to the pupil, this TA was quite a petite man. Yeah. And his reaction when the pupil started to go up was just to kind of keep calm, kind of keep repeating quietly. Yeah. Was always very considerate about where he sat next to the pupil. Yeah. So we could manage that. Yeah. And and then also uh you were saying about, you know, the the pupil who couldn't come into the classroom. Yeah. So this TA would look at the staff board in the morning and see who was not in, you know, where they were supplying or cover. Yeah. And decide whether it was right not to take the pupil to that lesson. Yeah. Because the pupil wouldn't be able to cope with that different Yeah. In that space. So yeah, really, yeah. So similar, and it there's a real powerfulness in that stillness. Yeah. Isn't there? But as you say, when you've got that chaos in a classroom of 30 children with hand tools that could be dangerous, machines running, and you've got a one pupil not able to control their behavior, it's very easy to go up than it is to come. Yes. Yeah, to come down. Yeah. Yeah. That that's a really powerful lesson to have shared, Ailis. And I think if you could just say again what your head teacher says about chaos, you can't fight chaos with chaos.

Ailis Brown:

That is so powerful. Yeah.

Alison Hardy:

That is so powerful.

Ailis Brown:

And I it's something that I've kind of taken and I use it with my own kids. I use it and it's so simple as well, isn't it? And it's so obvious.

Alison Hardy:

But in the heat of the moment, we had a we had a psychologist come in to one of the schools that I worked in, was head of department, and she did this session. And she said, What pupils need you to do is to stay solid. And she took she talked almost about your core um being being solid. And she talked about that doesn't necessarily mean that you're stationary. It's it's kind of about how you hold yourself and you be in the room. Yeah. And um, yeah, that that really stuck with me. Yeah. You can't deal with chaos with chaos. Yeah. Well, Ailis, thank you ever so much for sharing. And um, I don't know whether you can hear my dog has just appeared in the background, so uh he's obviously decided it's time for attention. Yes, I hear you, but this is a really good conversation. So Ailis, thanks ever so much for your time. Thank you. I'm Dr. Alison Hardy, and you've been listening to the Talking D&T Podcast. If you enjoyed the podcast, then do subscribe on whatever platform you use and do consider leaving a review as it does help others find the podcast. I do the podcast because I want to support the D&T community in developing their practice, so please do share the podcast with your D&T community. If you want to respond to something I've talked about or have an idea for a future episode, then either leave me a voice memo via Speakpipe or drop me an email. You can find details about me, the podcast, and how to connect with me on my website, dralisonhardy.com. Also, if you want to support the podcast financially, you can become a patron. Links to Speakpipe, Patreon, and my website are in the show notes. Thanks for listening.

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