Developing the agenda

In February 2008, representatives from over 25 schools met at the RSA to explore the key themes needing to be addressed by schools of the future. They worked alongside education practitioners and innovation experts from outside the education community, discussing how the process of incubating, developing and adapting next practice could work over the next 18 months.  

This event has led us to develop a detailed programme of what the Future Schools Network will do.

Practice development

The Network is at an early stage, and central to its development is creation of innovative practice within a set of key themes. This process was begun in February 2008, when schools representatives and educational practitioners met at the RSA.

Four broad themes for future practice development were identified on that day:

• 'Schools Without Boundaries'
• The role of the learner and teacher
• Creating and maintaining a culture of Innovation in schools
• Further development of the Opening Minds curriculum

Throughout the summer term 2008, the Network is working on breaking down these broad themes into specific issues which they want to work on.

Network at work

The Network will bring together small groups to work on each theme.  A small core of 'field trial' schools will act as incubators for next practice in each of the areas the Network will be examining. 'Communities of Practice' will form around field trial schools to support and learn from them in their work. These groups will largely consist of member schools alongside a small number of other contributors with relevant expertise.

Over the course of around 18 months, schools will collaborate with others in their Community of Practice to develop and implement a range of new practices with their theme in mind.  However, schools will be free to adapt and change what is developed by the group in ways that make sense for their context. Practitioners within their Community of Practice will support each other by sharing their experience, and exchanging useful information and resources.

The Future Schools Network will provide other schools with the opportunity to be inspired by this work, learn from the detail of evaluation, and adapt these practices for their own use.

It should also encourage policy makers to consider how they can value and encourage professional innovation to a greater degree.

Download the following PDFs:

• An outline of the development of the Future Schools Network
• Next Practice and the RSA Future Schools Network event on 4 February 2008