Area Based Curriculum - Manchester

Since September 2008, the RSA has been working with three schools in Manchester to explore the idea of an Area Based Curriculum as one route to embedding their school in its wider community.

The schools are Manchester Creative and Media Academy for Boys, Whalley Range and Manchester Enterprise Academy. 

These schools piloted projects in Summer term 2009, and the evaluation of which will be complete at the end of 2009.

Based on Opening Minds, the Area Based Curriculum in Manchester is an attempt to connect the opportunities, culture and creativity in cities and towns in the UK with the aspirations of the young people who already live there. With the local area as its foundation, the curriculum creates an opportunity for schools to think about the untapped resources and partners around them, creating a more distributed and collective education effort in the local area.

In time, such a curriculum could enable young people to use their growing knowledge and skills in their school and in the community of which the school is a part.

The Area Based Curriculum in Manchester has four main features:

• It uses the social, economic and cultural context of the area in which young people live to bring learning alive.
• In planning an Area Based Curriculum, schools seek to create rich connections to local employers, public services and civil society, with the intention of them developing a sense of ownership over the education and outcomes of local young people
• It encourages participation by offering students engaging, practical learning experiences located in the concrete reality of their local area
• It explicitly aims to foster the skills and competences young people need for life and to be effective as citizens