Introduction
A place for learning, the third paper in the RSA’s Power to Create series is not framed in the conventional manner of a report on a key issue, in this case lifelong learning. Instead, Tony Breslin’s text is built around a memorandum from an outgoing and highly regarded director of education to a newly elected city mayor outlining a set of policy proposals. We have chosen this format for three reasons:
- Although we shall doubtless continue to produce reports in more established formats, we sense that there might be some report-fatigue out there, and since our mission — none more so than in this series — is focused on encouraging individuals and organisations to embrace what we call the ‘Power to Create’ and to have the confidence and capacity to be creative in all that they do, we feel that we ought to ‘walk the talk’ and bring some creativity to the style of our own reporting.
- We want to emphasise and make real the importance of place and of locality in all of this. Certainly, since the introduction of Local Management of Schools (LMS) and the incorporation of FE colleges in the early 1990s, and arguably since the abolition of the Inner London Education Authority over a decade earlier, most would accept that the role of local government in education has been in progressive decline, a decline that culminated in the white paper, Education Excellence Everywhere, published in spring 2016, with its proposal for a fully (or perhaps now largely) ‘academised’ school system. Of course, local authorities could simply depart the stage, either gracefully or in protest, or they could carve a new role: inspiring, leading and cajoling various local partners drawn from every sector and walk of life into autonomous, locally-grounded movements that place the importance of education and learning at the heart of citizenship, civic purpose and community identity. We rather like this option — one which challenges traditional rationales for educational endeavour and which we have given further exposure to in our recent and on-going activities in two related areas referenced in these pages: our work on Cities of Learning led by Anthony Painter, and our work on the future of further education, led by Mark Londesborough.
- We want to give voice to those who work in education, especially those of creative and progressive intent. For this reason, we have chosen the vehicle of a memo and an accompanying policy paper, from a retiring director of education, Mike Barter, to a newly elected city mayor, Essi Spanier. Mike has “seen and done it all” and grown a little cynical in the process (sound familiar?) but he has also found himself improbably inspired by the education-focused campaign of the subsequently successful mayoral candidate, Essi, whose very existence owes much to what, not too long ago, we used to call “New Localism”.
As well as the memo and accompanying paper, the author also provides a brief outline of Kensalfield, our notional city. Kensalfield is not entirely a work of fiction. Especially if you live in one of the UK’s smaller cities or larger towns, you will see points of recognition. In providing this detail on an imagined place and local authority, the aim is not to ‘embellish the story’; it is conversely, that the thinking herein is based on real places, the proposals on realistic circumstances, and the concerns on the needs and aspirations of real people.
The thinking herein is based on real places, the proposals on realistic circumstances, and the concerns on the needs and aspirations of real people.
Finally, it is worth drawing attention to three themes that run through the analysis presented in these pages. First, if we are to build a culture of lifelong learning in our communities and our society that is genuinely ‘cradle to grave’, we have to change what we do in our schools. In particular, we need to think about how we engage families, and the communities from which these families emerge, in the life of the school: lifelong learning does not follow schooling — rather, it embraces and re-purposes schooling as a key juncture on every individual’s learning journey.
Second, what my RSA colleague Anthony Painter has framed as the “new digital learning age” in the first paper in this series, offers us opportunities to remodel and widen access to education in a host of ways, most of which we have yet to imagine, but we will only be able to imagine these possibilities if we are willing to unlearn much of what we know about learning first.
Third, one outcome of this ‘unlearning’ must be a wider rebalancing of the public discourse about educational purpose. Yes, learning will need to continue to prepare individuals for employment in whatever form it takes — and support individuals and families as they navigate the multiple career transitions of 21st century working life — but it must also enable individuals to strive and thrive in every aspect of their life beyond the workplace: as citizens, as local residents, and as family and community members.
And although Tony Breslin articulates this thinking through the imagined city of Kensalfield, we might pose the question to civic, business and community leaders, educationalists and policy influencers in the private, public and voluntary sectors: could your region, city or town embrace the spirit of Kensalfield, a city of learning in every sense of the term? If, by the end of this paper, you’re even thinking that the answer could be “Yes”, come and talk to us. We’d love to work with you to make Kensalfield a reality in your community, town or city; we believe the outcome could be transformational for all concerned.
Matthew Taylor
Chief Executive, Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce
October 2016
About the author
Tony Breslin FRSA, Associate, Creative Learning and Development Team, RSA
Follow Tony on Twitter @UKpolicywatch
Dr. Tony Breslin is a public policy analyst, specialising in education, participation and the third sector. An RSA Fellow and an Associate in the Creative Learning and Development Team of the RSA, he is also director of the consultancy Breslin Public Policy Limited and chair of the awarding organisation Industry Qualifications. Tony is a Visiting Fellow in the School of Education at the University of Hertfordshire, and a member of the Centre for Research on Education and Social Justice at the University of York. He has served as a chief examiner at GCSE and a chair of examiners at A level. He is chair of the board of governors of the recently formed Bushey Primary Education Federation in Hertfordshire and of the Academy Council at Oasis Academy Enfield in north London.
Between September 2001 and August 2010, he was chief executive at the Citizenship Foundation, the leading education and participation charity. Prior to this, he was general adviser, 14–19 Education, in Enfield, north London, where he led on the production of the council’s first lifelong learning strategy. A teacher by profession, he has taught and held management and senior leadership roles, including head of department and director of sixth form studies, at schools in Haringey and Hertfordshire. Tony has published over 70 texts and articles and has spoken widely in the UK and overseas on education and participation issues.
He has contributed to two recent RSA projects, Schools with Soul: a new approach to Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural Education (2014), led by Joe Hallgarten, and — in partnership with the British Educational Research Association — Research and the Teaching Profession: building the capacity for a self-improving education system (2014), for which he led the drafting of the final report on behalf of the project’s steering group. He is currently leading an RSA scoping study on the future of school governance, Governance in the Academies Age: issues, opportunities and challenges, which is scheduled to report towards the close of 2016.
A Place for Learning
Where next?
- Memorandum (from Mike Barter to Essi Spanier)
- Welcome to Kensalfield — background information about the city of Kensalfield
- 15 local City of Learning proposals — 15 proposals for activity within Kensalfield
- 5 national City of Learning proposals — Kensalfield’s place on the national stage
This article forms a part of the ‘A Place for Learning’ publication
Download a PDF version of the report from the RSA website
