We're asking students to work in teams to follow a human-centred design process and respond to one of the three challenge themes inspired by V&A collections:
Transform: How might we transform our world for the better? How might we transform objects around us to make them suit our needs without further impacting the environment?
Belong: How might we use design to bring people together, make people feel included and give them a sense of belonging? How can design be used to express a set of shared values, identities and symbols?
Celebrate: Could we use design to make how we celebrate more sustainable? Or how might you design a celebration for a person or group of people?
How to submit
Students submit their ideas on two A3 design sheets and finalist teams are invited to pitch their ideas to our expert judges at our annual Pitching and Awards Day at the museum.
Key dates
- Deadline for entries: 10 January 2025
- Pitching and Awards Day: Mid-March 2025
Prizes
- All students who enter receive a participation certificate
- Shortlisted entries and judged by a panel of industry experts and receive judges' feedback
- Finalists are invited to attend the annual Pitching and Awards Day at the V&A in London
- Prizes, including plaques, trophies and workshops with designers, are awarded to winning teams of students and teachers
Please note only state-funded secondary schools in England are eligible to take part.
Teachers will be sent a free V&A Innovate poster featuring an item from our collection after registration.
Watch this short film of our 2023 – 2024 finalist teams describing their experience of taking part in V&A Innovate at the Pitching and Awards Day.
2024-2025 Judges
- Jude Pullen is a Creative Technologist who is one of the eight featured inventors in BBC Two’s Big Life Fix documentary series that helps people with disabilities through technology and design.
- Liam Charles is a TV presenter who is well known for his time as a contestant on the Great British Bake Off, and now presents Bake Off: The Professionals and acts as a judge on Junior Bake Off.
- Angellica Bell is TV presenter and Radio host. Angellica’s career started at CBBC and notably presents on The One Show and hosts a show on Magic Radio.
V&A Innovate blog
Find out even more about the judges, previous winners and finalists, plus watch recordings of webinars with talks from designers and teachers.
Resources
Whether you're a teacher of D&T, Art & Design, Sciences, Geography, Citizenship, or something else entirely, you could run V&A Innovate in your class to show the power of design in a fast-changing world.
Register to take part, then head over to our resources pages to get started. Resources include using V&A collections to explore the themes, student worksheets, and films with designers and curators.
What does V&A Innovate support?
- Delivery of KS3 STEAM activities, cross-curricular teaching, and KS3 Design and Technology projects
- Delivery of D&T curriculum and scaffolds towards the NEA component of the D&T GCSE. The broad themes will encourage students to explore the real-world role of design in tackling the impact of global trends and models the NEA of GCSE specs with its emphasis on design thinking, problem solving and iteration
- Artsmark and Arts Award
- Celebrating and advocating for the role of design and creativity in your school
What are the benefits for students taking part?
- Developing interdisciplinary problem solving skills, creativity, critical thinking, collaboration and communication
- Learning about the work of future-looking designers and innovators
- Engaging with some of the most innovative objects in the V&A collections
- Exploring different design processes and applying them to real life
- Earning the chance to win awards and prizes for their school
Teacher CPD
Get inspired at our free online teacher events and hear top tips from other teachers about how to deliver the programme. Get in touch with us to organise a free, bespoke V&A Innovate session for your school or trust.
Register to take part
Register to take part in the V&A Innovate National Schools Challenge and to be kept up to date with news by email.
Get in touch
V&A Innovate is created by us in collaboration with designers and secondary school teachers across the country. If at any point you have questions, suggestions or ideas, drop us a line at innovate@vam.ac.uk
V&A Innovate is generously supported by Daniel Howard Foundation and The John S Cohen Foundation.
