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Future Schools Network - Schools for the Twenty-First CenturyCould do better... Standards in our schools have been rising over the last fifteen years. More pupils than ever before are leaving school with five A-C grades at GCSE, the number of failing schools has dropped to its lowest point. The improvement initiatives of the last ten years, such as taking failing schools into “special measures”, must be given credit for having a positive impact on standards in education in the UK. However, we face new challenges in a fast changing economy and society. Education needs to speak to pupils needs as they prepare for a future that technology, demography and environmental factors will make very different from today. To take their place as a contributor to that future economy and society, pupils need not just knowledge, but a love of learning and the capability to learn throughout life. We now face a standards plateau in our schools. Whatever the initial positive impact these interventions may have had, progress has slowed. Britain’s school system is progressing more slowly than in many of our economic competitors, and the gap between Britain and the top performers like Finland is widening. If we are to address the fact that upwards of 40% of school leavers do not reach these basic level of attainment, a more profound reassessment of what and how our children are taught must begin.  The RSA created the Opening Minds competency-based curriculum to address this fundamental challenge to modern schools – in other words to bridge the gap between the National Curriculum and pupils’ real needs. Through a pedagogy which teaches both subject-based knowledge and a group of key competencies the curriculum has delivered impressive improvements in pupil attainment. We also wanted to challenge the assumption that qualifications, however important, do not the equivalent of an education. We need a qualitative shift in our aims and ambitions for education, and this is what we have set out to address in the Future Schools Network. Next Practice - Schools for the Twenty-First CenturyIn partnership with the Innovation Unit, we want to establish a network of schools to explore what a school for the twenty first century should look like. This Future Schools Network will work with outstanding practitioners and other interested groups to take us beyond the current system into new territory, both in terms of how schools teach their students, and in terms of the systems needed to efficiently develop and spread innovative practice.The Future Schools Network is both about addressing the content and the process of this transformation in schools. Getting Started – Brainstorming WorkshopOn the 4th February a group of over 25 schools will meet at the RSA. Along with education practitioners and innovation experts from outside the education community they will explore what the key themes that need to be addressed by schools are. They will also explore how the process of incubating, developing and adapting next practice will work over the next 18 months.It is hoped that a small core of “field trial” schools will act as incubators for next practice in each of the key areas the Network will be looking at. This will be adapted and integrated into the practice of “communities of practice” that will form around each field trial school. Outcomes and OutputsThere can of course be no single idea of what a school should be. Our ambition is to enable schools for whom Opening Minds is central to their vision for education to produce a compelling vision of what a school for the twenty first century could look like.The outcomes of the Future Schools Network will be: Read a more detailed description of what the Network will do. Read about the Future Schools Network's values.
Our Partners - The Innovation Unit
The Innovation Unit, formerly part of the Department for Education and Skills, is an independent, not-for-profit organisation stimulating, incubating and accelerating innovation to improve education and other public services. It acts as a catalyst for change and to support practitioner-led, user-engaged development of ‘next practice’. Visit the Innovation Unit website and read more about Next Practice. |
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