The Wonder of Woodwork
by Peter Moorhouse
It is easy to feel disheartened by the demise of Design and Technology in education today. Even within the D & T curriculum since 1986 there has been a steady erosion of practical skills with more emphasis being placed on conceptual design and digital media. The overall decline is alarming – with now less than half of all school pupils getting the opportunity to handle tools in their entire education, even the very basics such as hammering in a nail or sawing wood. Less than half of secondary schools currently offer D&T as a GCSE option and there are only a handful of primary schools that offer any opportunity to work resistant materials within their D&T provision.
A whole generation is being disenfranchised of the rich development opportunities that this practical work with tools provides. Missing out on mastering tools and techniques, practical problem solving and the rich associated learning is so clearly a disservice to children especially as these skills are so important in a wide range of workplace situations – from vocational trades, product design and engineering, to surgery and dentistry. It hardly makes a level educational playing field if children are reliant on parents to pass on practical skills. Today, we regularly hear how the UK needs to embrace manufacturing once again and reports from university engineering departments bemoan the lack of practical skills and technical knowledge that students possess. It is clear the situation needs to radically change, and fast.
There is a ray of light, emerging from the early years sector. In recent years there has been a surge of interest in woodworking in early childhood education. This can be clearly evidenced by the increasing sales figures from educational suppliers of workbenches and tools as well as increasing numbers of CPD training sessions delivered. In some cases this will be settings starting from scratch, in others, it’s a case of dusting down the workbench and digging out the tools after many years of neglect. This renewed interest is to be very much welcomed. You may be surprised to hear that children as young as 3 and 4 can competently and safely work with tools, but woodwork actually has a long tradition within early childhood since the days of Froebel over 180 years ago, and when nursery and primary schools were first established in the late 1800’s/ early 1900’s it would have been the exception to come across a school that did not have a woodwork area.
Now is an opportune time to once again embed woodwork in primary schools, to offer rich experiential hands-on learning and a progression in the mastery of skills. Things could look very different and a wonderful example is primary education in Finland where all schools have a woodwork room, a fabric room and often a metalwork workshop too. In Finland woodwork and crafting are highly valued, and viewed as holistic cross curricular learning.
Today, teachers who do provide woodwork, regularly observe exceptional levels of engagement, with deep focus and concentration accompanied with persistence and perseverance with challenging tasks – especially with complex problem solving. It is a truly cross curricular activity, encompassing all areas of learning and development and can really play a central role in curriculum. Woodwork is exceptional for developing children’s creative and critical thinking skills as children tinker and experiment with the possibilities of wood and tools, and then go on to express ideas and resolve their work. Woodwork is not only about what children make - it is all about the changes that are happening within the child. Woodwork has a significant impact on children’s self-esteem and confidence and it develops a sense of agency – that “can-do” mind-set, and builds core dispositions to learning. Mathematical thinking is developed, scientific knowledge is acquired, technological understanding is developed through working with tools, with children becoming designers and engineers as they construct. Of course this will look different with each year group. A reception child may be discovering axles as they make a car, year 6 may be constructing wind turbines that generate electricity- true STEM learning. All other curriculum areas can be woven into the woodwork experience, for example with literacy they can research projects, ,make detailed plans and write about what they have made and in terms of physical development they will be using hand-eye coordination, bilateral coordination, fine and gross motor skills all of which will enhance agility and dexterity.
Woodwork particularly excels in opportunities to develop creativity and critical thinking and I believe this is really at the heart of woodworker's appeal and success. It is important that children have freedom to develop their own designs, develop their own original ideas, and then make their own choices of how best to solve problems and resolve their work. Throughout the process children will be applying and developing their creative thinking and critical thinking skills, skills that are increasingly seen as key in a rapidly changing world.
Woodwork was nearly eradicated in the 80s and 90s with a onerous culture of risk aversion which was fuelled by the litigation culture. Fortunately the current thinking around risk has become more balanced. This turn-around was initiated by Lord Young’s review of Health and Safety (Common Sense, Common Safety) in 2010 and since then the HSE, DoE and OFSTED have all advocated a more balanced attitude to risk. The current thinking is that children need opportunities to experience risk, to learn to self-risk assess, enabling them to make decisions and judgements rather than be over-protected and wrapped in cotton wool. Woodwork is a low-risk activity as long as some basic safety measures are put in place and appropriate tools are used. It is highly recommended that staff participate in woodwork CPD professional development as with woodwork there is a lot to know in order the most of the provision and teachers themselves often have little experience with tools.
I believe ‘learning through doing’ is as relevant as ever. Children today arguably have a disconnect with real life experiences through increasing use of technology, and the need for concrete first-hand learning experiences to connect on a deeper level has never been greater. As children make with wood they will be learning skills that will empower them to shape their world. It would be wonderful for all children to experience the rich opportunities that woodwork has to offer.
Author:
Pete Moorhouse is an early years creative consultant, researcher, author and artist educator based in the UK. He is an associate trainer for Early Education and deliverers training nationally and overseas and is also an endorsed Froebel Tutor. Pete is the UK’s leading authority on woodwork in Early Years education and has written several books and journal articles, including ‘Learning Through Woodwork’ (Routledge) and books on outdoor learning. He is currently working on his latest book – ‘Creativity in Practice: Nurturing creative and critical thinking in early childhood education’. He was awarded an honorary research fellowship from the University of Bristol and is currently researching the value of woodwork in early education. Pete was also awarded a Churchill Fellowship to undertake international research into best woodworking practices in Primary and Early Years education. Pete won the national award (2019) from the Creative Learning Guild for his work promoting creativity in education and is Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Notes:
Moorhouse, P. ‘Learning Through Woodwork: Introducing Creative Woodwork in the Early Years’ London New York Routledge 2018. Available via Routledge and Amazon
