(Nov.08)

New initiative launched to encourage innovation in school-led residentials

The Paul Hamlyn Foundation has launched a new initiative to help schools make the most of residential learning experiences. Learning Away is a six-year, £2.25 million programme which ultimately aims to achieve significant shifts nationwide in schools’ commitment to providing these opportunities for their pupils.

The Foundation is inviting groups of schools to submit proposals setting out how they would like to develop and pilot high quality residentials and embed them within the wider curriculum. These activities should act as key interventions to maximise pupils’ achievements or support a strategic change process within the school or group of schools. Applications are invited from primary, secondary and special schools across the UK. Early Years settings, independent schools and contributions from other partners may be included within the proposals. The Foundation expects to select five to eight groups of schools (around 30 schools in total) to work with, and will be providing some funding as well as ongoing support and guidance to selected schools from September 2009.

The Foundation is particularly interested in proposals which intend to demonstrate innovative approaches to:
- the type of activities and learning experiences that can take place within a residential setting and the learning outcomes that can be achieved from these;
- the integration of pedagogical or curriculum approaches that are developed or predominant in a residential setting within day to day teaching and learning practices back in school; and/or
- overcoming structural, organisational or funding issues that commonly prevent schools from committing to residentials as fully as they would like.
- the effective use of a progression of residential experiences over a young person’s school career or at key points of transition
- the use of residential experiences as a significant catalyst for a desired, longer-term change process within a school or group of schools
- assessing and evidencing the impact of residential experiences on learning outcomes for children and young people and wider outcomes for school staff, or at the level of a whole school, partnership of schools or wider community.

The initiative has been launched alongside the new Learning Outside the Classroom website (www.lotc.org.uk) which contains updated guidance and CPD materials for schools and a new Ofsted report ‘Learning Outside the Classroom: How far should you go’. Education and Learning Programme Manager at the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Denise Barrows said “We hope that this initiative will encourage schools both those with strong existing residential programmes and those who have not yet committed significantly to residential learning to make a step change in their residential provision and show just what can be achieved.”

The deadline for first stage applications to the initiative is Friday 13th February 2009.

Full details and application guidance is available through the Learning Away links in the Education and Learning section of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation website, http://www.phf.org.uk

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