Textile education in UK primary schools: New report from the Textiles Skills Centre
25/02/2025
The Textiles Skills Centre has published a new report examining the current state of textiles education in UK primary schools, gathering feedback from 166 participating teachers. ‘Stitching together an understanding of the barriers and facilitators to textiles education in UK primary schools’ offers insights relating to demographics, teaching roles, capabilities, resources and barriers to delivering effective textiles lessons.
The report found that teaching hours of textiles annually varied, with a mean of 7.5 hours. However, 17.6% teach only 1 hour annually.
Key findings include:
- 80% had no formal textiles training
- 8%felt textiles teaching increased their workload
- 4% reported having no dedicated budget for textiles
The recommendations focus on enhancing textiles education in primary schools by:
- Highlighting its value: Developing a strong case for textiles education to secure curriculum time and resources while supporting teachers in advocating for it.
- Providing curriculum guidance: Creating a structured curriculum with lesson and project ideas for ages 5-11 to help teachers plan and integrate textiles lessons.
- Advising on materials and tools: Offering practical recommendations on required materials, tools and lesson timings, with cost considerations.
- Improving teacher training: Developing a training toolkit for teachers, including modules on curriculum mapping, classroom management, and resource use.
The research emphasizes the need for better support, resources and training to enhance textiles education, ensuring a more engaging learning experience for students.
Using the recommendations from this research, the Textiles Skills Centre will develop resources and CPD training for Primary teachers in the UK.
About the Textiles Skills Centre:
The Textiles Skills Centre brings together industry and education experts to support, develop and deliver resources, courses and events for textiles teachers, trainers and the open community.
The organisation was founded in 2015 by Dawn Foxall and has grown as an organisation to promote the value of textile skills in the community, through affordable access to training and events, supporting mental health, enhancing creativity and developing life skills. There is now a small team of associates who provide high quality training, workshops, developing resources and mentorship, to support textiles education throughout the teaching community and those who love textiles.