Conference for Learning – February 16 2007

The council officially began developing its vision for secondary schools of the future at its Conference for Learning on February 16 2007.

The conference was the first step in the process to consult with the local community, schools, children, young people and other stakeholders to help them shape the future for secondary education for the borough.

Over 100 delegates including young people and representatives from schools, local area partnerships, council departments, local business and voluntary organisations, attended the conference at the Grimsby Institute to hear international speakers Professor Stephen Heppell and Ty Goddard introduce the concept of the school of the future.
Delegates were enthralled by the visionary ‘out of the box’ thinking which covered concepts such as learning environments, IT and upturning conventional curriculum and timetables in favour of child centred individual learning.

The event was described by one delegate as ‘Inspirational, motivational and very thought provoking. Excellent’.

Professor Stephen Heppell

At the conference Stephen Heppell gave a thought provoking presentation about learning spaces and the curriculum of the future. Throughout the presentation there was a strong theme about how ICT had to be built into the schools of the future.

Learning spaces – 0ne of the images shown at the conference

If you want to read more about Stephen’s Heppell’s ideas about Learning Environments of the Future you can download a document written by him under the useful websites area.

Ty Goddard is managing director of School Works and has been running participatory design processes with schools and local authorities. His presentation focused on the following areas:

Changes in Education

With so much new technology available, and new cultures in the workplace, we need to enable teachers to educate our children in a way which equips them with the skills they will need in the outside world.

We ask why, in this changing world, the structure of the school day still operates in the manner of the 19th century. We ask how the school building itself represents a hidden form of curriculum, and how behaviour is affected by design.

Changes in Society

As we live in an increasingly diverse, individualised and less hierarchical society, and new ideas about lifelong learning are emerging, we need our school buildings to open out to their local communities.

We ask how the design of school buildings can stimulate lifelong learning locally, and aim to ensure that the needs of local people are considered when creating school designs.

Beautiful Schools

We all know that beautiful spaces can inspire and motivate us, while ugly environments can depress. We care about the way our homes and offices look and feel, but very little consideration has been given to our school buildings. We believe that space has an indirect and direct effect on the possibility of learning.