Involver

We’ve been asked to promote this very interesting looking event to “schools, colleges, educational charities, policy forums, trade unions”. I’m intending on going.

Theme: Autonomy and Freedom in schools and universities: a focus on pedagogy and curriculum

Date:     Thursday 12 March 2015

Time:     12noon-5pm

Venue:  Executive Meeting Room JHB 128, Oxford Brookes University, (Headington, Gipsy Lane site), Oxford

We have confirmed two keynotes speakers who will share experiences of working in innovative student-led institutions in Denmark. These are Prof Martin Bayer (Roskilde University) and Mr Jørn West Larsen (Hellerup School). There will also be opportunities for smaller discussions and workshops which will be confirmed nearer the time.

A website (www.freedomtolearnproject.com) and a Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/freedomtolearnproject) are also available to view. These include information about a new PhD scholarship which is currently being advertised at the University of Hull. This is attached to the Freedom to Learn Project and will focus on exploring autonomy and freedom in the tertiary sector. Please help us by passing on the details of this scholarship to any potential applicants. The deadline is 2 February 2015.

Please do email Clare McKinlay (c.m.mckinlay@hull.ac.uk) if you would like to reserve a place at this or future project events.

We’re very happy to have been asked by the European Parliament and European Commission to run education visits to Europe House in 2015.

These are free sessions for secondary schools or colleges which help students to learn about the European Parliament and European Union. To find out more, and sign up for a session, click here: http://www.europarl.org.uk/en/education/school_visits.html

Two great new animations have been launched by Parliament’s Education Service.

They’re useful if you’re in secondary school and studying Citizenship, Government and Politics or other courses.

The first one is about the House of Commons – take a look at this here, and another one about an introduction to Parliament here.

Earlier in the year, Asher travelled to Lahore in Pakistan to talk to teachers and students there about what makes a school council smart. It was an event organised by the British Council and the Citizenship Foundation as part of the Connecting Classrooms initiative focusing on how citizenship education can be improved. This conference concentrated on how school councils (known as student councils in Pakistan) could be used as a vehicle for citizenship education.

Read all about his trip on the Smart School Councils Community site here.

We’re lucky enough to be working on Peabody on a number of projects. These projects help to apply some of the principles we think are important in different settings.

For example, we’ve helped to develop the  Our Say Our Way toolkit to help social landlords work with young people in a more effective way.

We’re currently to evaluate the Men’s Shed project and developing a Young Leaders framework.