10th ANNIVERSARY of TEXTILES SKILLS CENTRE 2025
WHAT WE HAVE ACHIEVED AND THE IMPACT OF OUR WORK
As we continue to celebrate a decade of inspiring and developing textile education. The month of February is all about looking at the IMPACT Textile Skills Centre has made; we also wanted to share some feedback from teachers across the country that have been part of our TSC community.
We are proud to have made an impact in the classroom, empowering teachers to learn with us and pass their knowledge on to the next generation of textile practitioners.
TEACHER FEEDBACK:
‘I have to say joining the Textiles Skill Centre family has not only made a huge impact to teaching but also my life. I joined having got a job as a textile’s teacher covering maternity. I was also offered a permanent position at the school due to my enthusiasm and commitment which would not have been apparent if I had not have found the Textiles Skill Centre family. I wasn’t very confident in textiles.
This all changed when I joined. Not only did I feel welcomed but reassured from the start and no question was too silly. The amount of skills, techniques and connections I made were second to none. I was able to relay the skills I’d learned, teaching my pupils new techniques and fresh up to date ideas that proved successful within KS3 and GCSE.
My grades with my first class went up 3 grades to some students. An external specialist within the trust noticed where I had taken over with regards to their coursework and was very impressed. The confidence TSC gave me in my ability to teach and achieve great results was a feeling I will never forget. The pupils were excited at learning new techniques in KS3 and it was evident as there appeared to be more interest in choosing the subject for GCSE. I couldn’t have asked for more. It was also comforting and reassuring to know that the team were only a text message away should I need any advice. Going from a teacher with limited knowledge and skill set in Textiles I felt I was now armed with the right tools, knowledge and confidence to make a difference and become a good teacher who is passionate about the subject.
I truly think and believe that with a resource/centre like this every school /education establishment would benefit immensely from the knowledge and resources gained. To be in a school with limited funds / resources and behaviour issues, see pupils engage, wanting to try and enjoy new up to date techniques projects gained from the courses was truly inspirational and confirms the reason why I love to teach.
I would undoubtedly recommend Dawn, Nicky and their band of Merry contributors to make a HUGE difference to results, achievements and participation in a subject worthy of recognition in schools. I am now a converted Textiles Teacher and it’s all down to Textiles Skill Centre.’
Jane Peters, Teacher, Shrewsbury
F2F WORKSHOPS
We have trained over 2000 teachers at live skills workshops hosted in schools and universities across the UK and beyond, including joint events with our colleagues at the Food Teachers Centre in the UK, Dubai and Abu Dhabi
‘I cannot recommend the face-to-face courses enough. You not only come away with new skills and samples but you make new friends along the way. This has supported me in my teaching practice far more than any school. Without TSC, I don’t think that I would’ve coped and managed setting up a Textiles department and writing my own curriculum. Working with TSC has given me something to look forward to as part of my teaching career. As a self-funder, it’s also been something that I’ve done for myself and has felt like a treat and me time when doing the face-to-face courses. Absolutely fabulous!’
Angela Walker, West Midlands
ONLINE WORKSHOPS
We have a variety of short and long online courses which can be access at any time and for all abilities.
‘I’m just emailing to say how amazing the online, on demand Surface Textile Techniques course is. I’ve just had a look through and it’s made me so excited to teach my textile girls some great new skills. As an ECT 1 with no textile background I was defiantly nervous about teaching my textile GCSE class. I cannot explain how much these courses have helped me!’
Lizzie Mayall
‘I have taken part in the Textile Skills Centre courses, they have been instrumental in the design of my course, the resources that are provided along with the course enabled me to create a high quality scheme of work for my KS4 curriculum and since starting with this course textiles has been the highest performing subject in our academy for 5 years running, without the inspirational, hands on courses and practical resources I’m not sure I would have achieved this.’
“I have been lucky enough to attend a few of the Textiles Skills Centre courses and they have all been absolutely fantastic. After changing to the Art & Design specification after years of teaching D&T I was a bit daunted by how to approach he coursework. These courses have been an absolute game changer – I came away with so many ideas which I was able to put into practice immediately. TSC provides so many examples of sketchbooks and final outcomes that you can see first-hand how the skills being delivered translate to student work. The skills themselves are varied yet equally really accessible and they provide lots of suggestions on how to approach tight budgets. The enthusiasm and expertise is really inspiring and you can’t wait to go away and try it all! The student results following the introduction of the projects developed off the back of these courses were outstanding and moderator feedback was really positive too.”
Gemma Hibbard, West Yorkshire
TEACHER FUNDED PROGRAMMES
The ‘Become A Great Textile Teacher’ BAGTT Programme – TSC trained over 100 teachers directly and supported and trained over 300 – This programme was match funded through a grant from ASET (All Saints Educational Trust)
‘Enrolling in the How to Become a Great Textiles Teacher programme with The Textiles Skills Centre has been an invaluable experience. The programme was incredibly informative and has had a significant impact on my classroom practice, providing me with new strategies and confidence to deliver engaging lessons.’ Emma Gilbert-Cambridgeshire
‘I would say being on the BAGTT programme has had a huge outcome on the standard and creativity of my Year 11’s work and already I can see even bigger improvements with Year 10 – they are going to be an amazing year group!’
MENTORSHIP PROGRAMME
MENTORSHIP – MORE INFO
We have several mentors that volunteer their time to talk to their colleagues. They also get a lot out of the mentorship programme
‘Being a mentor helps promote self-reflection and actually makes me more motivated! It also connects me to the wider teaching community, that in turn helps me learn more. Mentoring helps me see how teaching is emerging and changing, which is so important. My aim is simply ‘Better Textiles Teaching’ which in turn will be good for the teacher, the school and that will be reflected in a better textile industry in this country.’ Nicky Simpson, TSC Course developer
We have mentored over 200 teachers. Here is feedback from one teacher:
‘I want to extend my thanks for your support and continued mentorship for this new course. It has been very helpful to go through best practice approaches for projects and having someone to talk through ideas and plans. Making the transition from Design & Technology to Art & Textiles was both daunting and at times quite over whelming but I have been so grateful for the help you have extended initially about the course structure and continually about the content and delivery. Your resources have been amazing to use and adapt as sources of inspiration for me and also by the students. I would highly recommend using the resources alongside the mentoring to get the maximum benefit.
The impact that mentorship has had on my teaching is that I have increased confidence with the delivery of the course which has then resulted in further enthusiasm for me. This has also had a positive impact on the students who are indirectly benefiting. Pupils in KS3 no longer look at Textiles as a Tiresome subject but have a new found buzz of interest. Other teachers have also commented on how much students are engaging with Textiles.
Since my sessions I have re- developed the curriculum so that it incorporates the essential requirements of the specification but is now taught in a more fun and engaging method. I am still drawing on the wealth of experience that you have to offer so I do continue to develop my practice with learning exciting decorative skills to methods of making a garment or to just having someone go through inspirational Artists.
My projects are already feeling more exciting, although I plan to develop them with your support to suit changes in the environment / current trends and also most importantly for students to make the best progress and reach their true potential in an enjoyable manner.’
Leena Chauhan, Leicestershire – Curriculum Leader of Design & Technology
SOCIAL MEDIA
TEXTILES SKILLS CENTRE INSTAGRAM: @textileskillscentre
Our Facebook Community has over 10.5k, Instagram over 2000 followers, where we share competitions and giveaways from our amazing sponsors:
TEXTILE TEACHERS CENTRE FACEBOOK GROUP
OUR SPONSORS
We are very grateful to our sponsors who we have been working with for the last 3 years. They have donated amazing prizes for the competitions and social media giveaways and supported with equipment when needed. HUGE THANK YOU to:
JANOME UK & IRELAND Sewing machines
JANOME UKDRYAD EDUCATION RESOURCES
DRYAD EDUCATION
STUDENT TEXTILE ARTIST COMPETITION
Our competition last year received over 600 entries. The prize winners received the coveted TSC trophy, a sewing machine from Janome and a voucher from Dryad, as well as a free TSC course.
‘’I would like to say a huge thank you for the opportunity your team creates for our students. Being able to enter the competition enables students to showcase their work to a wider audience, giving them confidence in the quality of their creativity and skill, especially when a prize winner! This can be springboard to next steps in the textile industry/study programme, being a national competition.’
Neve Scott with her teacher Gemma Hibbard
FREE CPD/EVENTS
We originally started running networking events during lockdown, so that teachers could talk to each other and ask questions. They were a real source of support in desperately lonely and difficult times especially for teachers of practical subjects and new teachers.
They were so successful we continued the events and run at least one every month, covering a huge variety of topics and presenters, from educationalists to artists and designers.
We have hosted over 100 of our Tuesday Tea ‘N Chat evenings, regularly attended by so many teachers it would be hard to count. These range from Textile artists talks and demos to Career evenings. Keeping up with the age of technology we have recently explored AI in Textile education and have planned a session on 3D printed fashion. Our ‘Exploring the ESA’ events are particularly successful, especially for new teachers. Each session comes with resources and the recordings of the sessions are uploaded to our YouTube channel where you can find all of them, for free:).
YOUTUBE CHANNEL‘The Virtual Tea and Chat sessions for GCSE and A-Level externally set assignments have been a great source of support. These sessions have helped me—and many other teachers—navigate exam content with clarity and confidence, ensuring that we can best support our students. I highly recommend The Textiles Skills Centre to any textile’s teacher looking to develop their skills, gain fresh ideas, and be part of a supportive professional community.’’
Emma Gilbert, Cambridgeshire
‘The weekly tea n chats are great, as not only are they informative but I made a lot of friends /connections all over the country, even as far as the Isle of Man!’
Jane Peters, Shrewsbury
NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL EVENTS
Over the past 10 years we have been part of several national events, including the BIG D&T MEET in July last year, regularly run workshops at the KNITTING & STITCHING SHOW, STITCH FESTIVAL and FESTIVAL of QUILTS.
We have also hosted conferences with our friends the Food Teachers Centre (Textiles Skills Centre joint Teachers Events: 2015-2017) both in the UK and in UAE (Dubai & Abu Dhabi)
RESEARCH.
In the last 2 years we have been lucky enough to gain funding to research into textiles education in the UK and have published 2 reports which have gained much praise and used by academics and stakeholders with the aim to secure the future of textiles education in schools.
