To help entrench lifelong learning in the common psyche, this website from ContinYou displays the programmes it is developing to build learning communities throughout the UK. The aim is to give communities, and the individuals within them, access to new learning opportunities, and by so doing to change lives. It is based on the premise that learning is about much more than just that which goes on in schools.
www.continyou.co.uk
For curriculum managers, the site offers new ways to tackle inequality, engage with the local community and approach learning to transform attitudes in your area. The programmes are organised in six key areas of work, which you can explore individually via the menu sublist on the left-hand side of the home page. All of the individual programmes are then collated together in an A–Z list, for those who want to go direct to a particular project. The project areas are many and various. For example, find out about Active Citizens in Schools (ACiS), a flexible award scheme that schools can use in delivering the citizenship curriculum.
ContinYou aims to help schools become more community focused. Through the extended school programmes, it aims to help schools partner with other agencies to extend the learning opportunities it has on offer. The other key area likely to be of particular interest to schools is the section on out-of-hours provision, which includes online resources for those wishing to extend the services they offer in this area. ContinYou works with schools to initiate enjoyable out-of-school-hours learning programmes to ‘awaken students’ natural love of learning’, focusing in particular on attracting those pupils who traditionally were least likely to participate in such activities, so promoting social inclusion.
The site also offers a range of resources you can download direct, thus widening your knowledge base and extending the pool of learning materials available to your staff. For those who want a site overview, head to the ‘Welcome to ContinYou’s website’ page, which advises on the different ways you can access the information contained within its pages.
If you want to be kept up to date with latest developments, the site gives you the opportunity to join a subscription network. The two likely to be of most interest to curriculum managers are Extra Community for schools working to develop their community links and extended services, and Extra Time for those developing out-of-school-hours learning.
Overall, the site offers plenty of information on how to develop your school so that it becomes more community-focused in its approach, to the benefit of students, staff and your local area.