Freedom to Learn

Heidi Steel guides us through identifying children's interests, valuing those pursuits as a mode of learning, and how learning connections grow. Click here for the slides.

Episode hosted by Carol Whibley, Certified Play Therapist from Blue Whale Play Therapy. Find out how you can use sand tray and symbols to explore our personal stories and  exploring how these stories can develop into artwork, animation, film  making, script writing, creative writing. Slides here.

This episode is a discussion about how young people can get involved in changing the things they no longer want to accept. Learn tips and tricks and listen to the stories of other young activists.

This episode was created by members of Changemakers Lab, a two year program run by Phoenix Education supporting 14-18 year olds campaigning to reform the education system to better reflect their needs and rights. 

Join Deborah McCahon from http://www.woodcraft.org.uk to hear how Woodcraft Folk adapted during Covid-19 lockdown to deliver online and remote programme activities. Explore how you can benefit from their learning and possibly contribute to their ongoing programme activities. For more information see: www.dreambigathome.uk

Visual learners often struggle with a purely auditory strategy taught for literacy in school. Creative, imaginative students invariably have great mental images that can dramatically improve literacy, numeracy,  concentration and so much more, when under control. Listen to this episode and try out for yourself how your own mental images improve your visual learning.

This episode is hosted by Derry Hannam and Polly Cheer. They argue that state-funded schools, both primary and secondary, should be encouraged to allocate at least 10% of curriculum time to be negotiated around the interests of the students and staff.  This would allow time for individual or collaborative self-directed education, with the teachers being available as facilitators or ‘experts’ if their services were requested by the students. Some links to resources mentioned in the episode:

A presentation and discussion about Derry Hannam's newly published book 'Another Way Is Possible: Becoming a Democratic Teacher in a State  School' a presentation by the Author Derry Hannam, followed by a group discussion.

Consider all the wonderful ways that you and those around you can become researchers in education. Hosted by Meera Chudasama, an English  Media and Film Studies teacher with a passion for practitioner research,  this episode delves into how children, teachers and parents can take part in the research process and even conduct their own inquiries. The group considers the collaborative aspects of education research; seeing the value in what  can be achieved when working together.

Adele Jarrett-Kerr presents thought-starters on how self-directed education can play a part in ousting colonial thinking. The aim of this episode is to acknowledge the violence at work in coercive education and explore how we can recentre learning to disrupt systems that cause harm. Find out more about Adele's work here.

An interactive session with young people aged 10-18, hosted by Tommaso Segantini from Woodcraft Folk, to critically think about the media and how they portray news. Together the group look at fake news and emotional manipulation. See the slides here.