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This film, directed by Lord Puttnam follows five young people who attend mainstream schools. It highlights how out of touch schools are in providing children with the skills they need in a vastly changing, 21st Century world. We are already a decade into this new Century and yet we are still switching children off of learning.
The film discusses how different things might be if children were to study subjects that interests them. In the UK we are on the cusp of developing a new curriculum, under the Curriculum 2011 initiative where schools have the autonomy to write their own curriculum, at last, freed from the Literacy and Numeracy frameworks.
Could Curriculum 2011 be the turning point, where we give our children a chance to once again have a love of learning? I hope so. I'm certainly inspired by this film, which is why I've shared this with the Senior Leadership Team who will have a significant role in shaping our new curriculum amongst many others on the committee.
Another inspiration comes from the new Portland Academy which promises to deliver a truly 21st Century learning environment and uniquely, an all-through nursery, school, college and university. Pupils will enter aged 5 and leave at 21, which will be brilliant for all those children where learning is otherwise lost making their way through the school system. Literally wasted, as children in traditional schools make the transition through each phase, proving that they really can demonstrate those earlier skills again and again, often being less challenged than they were when they left. The new Portland Academy changes all that. How fabulous. It is a remarkable project and one that I think will see the greatest transformation of learners who will be amazingly ambitious and confident in their abilities.
Once again, Sir Ken Robinson is spot on in his thinking, relating much of what he said at TED in 2006 to where he sees the future for our young people.
Watch the film, it's here in full.
