Networking event Nov '10

GET INVOLVED - GIVE US YOUR COMMENTS, THOUGHTS AND IDEAS BELOW

We held the first major event of the innovative Peterborough Curriculum project on Monday 29th November at the Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery. The event was attended by a wide range of potential community partners and representatives from the five partner schools - the turn out was fanastic considering we arrived in a heavy snow shower on a day of strikes in London and train cancellations all up the East Coast!

Participants in the day were invited to think about what they might bring to a community curriculum in terms of values, skills and resources, and to connect with other participants (be they from organisations or from schools). Feedback from participants included people welcoming the opportunity to connect up with other people in the city: one participant said that the day was "very entertaining and it was good to be able to meet so many people who I could form useful links with in the future." That's what we're here for!

A list of all the organisations represented at the event is available here:

List of organisations

This event was intended to provide a space to come together with others who have expressed an interest in the project and explore ideas with teachers and leaders from our partner schools. We deliberately kept descriptions of the project to a minimum so that focus would be on people from Peterborough meeting one another, rather than us getting too involved.

Next steps are to capture what we can about links that were made and to think about who wasn't represented and how we include other groups. We will also provide those interested in taking things forwards with some project structure so that the hard work of curriuclum design and creation can begin in the spring.

To this end we're asking all participants to answer three questions:

1. What surprised you during the morning? What did you learn?

2. What is still confusing? What do you want to know more about?

3. What relationships, links, people, ideas or groups would you like to explore further?

All answers can be posted below on the discussion forum or emailed to louise.thomas@rsa.org.uk.

What is the Peterborough Curriculum?

The Peterborough Curriculum will bring together young people, schools, local institutions, parents and residents of Peterborough, to develop a school curriculum that will draw on the whole city as a learning resource and will promote engagement and community awareness among young people.

The curriculum will build on existing initiatives, partnerships and innovative work being done in Peterborough and will develop learning by:

- Challenging ‘who’ provides education – involving a wider community to help design and provide learning for the young people of Peterborough
- Expanding ‘where’ education is delivered – using the whole of Peterborough as an environment for learning
- Shifting how we value ‘what’ is taught – using Peterborough’s history, cultures, economy and geography as inspiration for enquiry and learning

A lot of schools, organisations and individuals are already working on designing learning for children that takes one or more of these features into account – our challenge is to deepen, broaden and support this work to realise an ambitious goal of creating a curriculum that everyone in Peterborough – inside and outside of schools – has a stake in, and can be proud of.


How can I find out more?

Please feel free to email Louise Thomas at the RSA (louise.thomas@rsa.org.uk) or visit the Peterborough Curriculum page on the RSA website where you can download the concept note for the Area-based Curriculum.