Dyson Foundation Partnership

We are delighted to announce that Chew Valley School is now a partner school with the James Dyson Foundation. The Foundation is the brainchild of the renowned inventor and manufacturer behind the bagless vacuum cleaner, the bladeless fan, and the Airblade hand-dryer, and is committed to encouraging young people into careers in design engineering. The registered charity provides free resources for design and technology teachers, as well as working in universities and schools throughout the UK and internationally. It’s also behind the James Dyson Award.

The Foundation will make a substantial investment in the school to ensure that our students have access to the best resources and teaching approaches, enabling teachers to take real life engineering into the classroom. Our staff have already visited the Dyson Research & Development facilities in Malmesbury, Wiltshire to experience the Dyson design process and meet senior engineers. In September we will be piloting a new project with Year 8, using a bladeless fan as a means of propulsion. This project will then be rolled out nationally through the Foundation's teachers' network.

James Dyson explains the thinking behind the Foundation's investment: "to challenge conventional thinking and generate new ideas, it’s imperative that teachers use the latest, most exciting, materials. By working with industry and sharing their expertise these teachers can ensure the classroom is brimming with exciting ideas and new technology”.

We look forward to working with Dyson over the coming years in the hope of training some engineers of the future!