DATTA Qld Newsletter
March 2026
Dear Colleagues,
Welcome to the second DATTA Qld newsletter for 2026! We’re thrilled to have you with us as we kick off another exciting year of professional learning, networking, and celebration of excellence in Design and Technologies education across Queensland.
The committee is brimming with enthusiasm for what lies ahead – from our highly anticipated Annual Conference in June, to the upcoming Student and Teacher Excellence Awards, and the always-inspiring Design Technology Week.
If you haven’t already, we encourage you to renew or start your membership for 2026 and join a vibrant community committed to supporting your professional growth and championing innovation in our field.
With best wishes,
Carol-Anne Durkin
President – Design And Technology Teachers’ Association QLD
2026 DATTA Qld Conference - Registration reminder and presentation submissions closing today!
Registration is now open for the DATTA Qld Conference, taking place on Thursday 18 and Friday 19 June 2026 at our new venue, Kedron-Wavell.
Submit your PD forms and register early to take advantage of early bird rates.
We can’t wait to see you in June!
Conference – presentation submissions – closing today!
Do you have information, ideas or methods you would like to share with the DATTA Qld Community at this year’s Annual Conference? We would love to hear from you, but presentation submissions are closing today Monday 30 March.
Find out more about submitting your presentation by clicking the link below.
Week 5 PD - Term 2
Topic: Sharing good practice in 2026 – Applied Subjects and QCAA Quality Assurance
Description: An opportunity to connect with colleagues across the State to share your plans, approaches and questions about the upcoming QCAA Quality Assurance process for QCAA.
Audience: Teachers, HODs.
What you need to bring: ideas, examples of assessment instruments you plan to use and units of work.
When: 20/05/2026 5:00-6:30
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Register by emailing teachmeet@dattaqld.org.au
Bridge Building Podcast
The latest podcast was published on 11 March 2026.
In this episode of the Bridge Building Podcast, Stephen chats with Caroline Blackley for a thoughtful and practical conversation about behaviour, engagement, and the realities of working with students in active learning environments.
Caroline shares insights from her 4 Dimensions framework, which reframes behaviour management through the lens of human behaviour, decision-making, and cognitive load. Rather than offering one-size-fits-all behaviour strategies, she explores how expectations, reinforcement, redirection, and follow-through work together to shape classroom culture.
This discussion will be especially valuable for teachers in design and technology, manual arts, engineering, food studies, and other practical subjects, where students are moving, making, using tools, and engaging in hands-on learning.
We also discuss one of the biggest challenges many teachers face: student apathy. Caroline offers practical ideas for how teachers can respond in ways that are consistent, relational, and more effective over time.
DATTA Qld Teacher of the Year Awards
The DATTA Queensland Teacher Excellence Award program was established to recognise Design & Technology teachers (and other industry associates) who contribute to the profession, serve as models for their colleagues and demonstrate excellence in the classroom. It should be noted that the term “Design & Technology teachers” is meant to include all teaching areas in the subject area, including areas such as engineering and STEM.
The award serves to provide public recognition for Queensland Design & Technology teachers with candidates being nominated by their colleagues. They may also self-nominate.
These awards are made each year and one of the awardees will become the Queensland nomination for the DATTA Australia Educator of the Year award, which is announced at their conference.
Submit your nomination form by Sunday 31 May 2026.
DATTA Qld Student Awards
The Design And Technology Teachers’ Association of Queensland Student Subject Award program has been established to recognise excellence and outstanding achievements in Design and Technologies subjects across Queensland.
This year there has been an update to the requirements for submission. Please see following:
- Student work must use the template provided
- Student work must be submitted in .jpeg format
- Submissions must be accompanied with media coverage permission form
- File name format “LastName_FirstName_School_Category” (Doe_Jane_SHS_Y10D&T.jpeg)
Submissions along with the completed nomination form and signed media consent form, should be emailed to Jamie Lay at; studentawards@dattaqld.org.au by Sunday 6 September 2026.
Reminders
Membership!
Membership renewals have been issued. Please check your email for your renewal notice and take a moment to confirm your DATTA Qld school and or personal membership details.
Membership provides benefits throughout the year and supports the work of your professional association. We also encourage you to talk with colleagues about their membership – who can you remind or encourage to renew or join DATTA Qld in 2026?
Schools – Don’t forget to list your teachers on your membership record so they can access the discounted conference rates!
Any questions – email membership@dattaqld.org.au
Free classroom resources
DATTA Qld have been delighted to collaborate with Forest Learning and support them to develop a fantastic range of free units of work for Design & Technologies.
Each resource provides unique insights into how forests play a vital role in the provision of forest and wood products and environmental services for society.
Topics include the sustainable seating project, going green in your school canteen, the nesting box project, forest VR and the phone stand project.
To access all the D&T resources, click here to set up your free website login and then browse the resources library.
Member spotlight
We want to celebrate our amazing members. There are so many inspiring, hard-working Design and Technology teachers working in our State. We want to recognise your contributions to high-quality Design and Technologies Education. Nominate a colleague, or yourself, to feature in one of the DATTA QLD Member Spotlights.
Email Expressions of Interest to socials@dattaqld.org.au.
Contribute to our monthly newsletter
We encourage our members to contribute to our monthly newsletter! Please contact us if you have any articles or information that you think could be included in future newsletters.
Email on: socials@dattaqld.org.au
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