Learning Outside the Classroom
Updated 17 March 2008
January 2008 News
Overview
Peter Carne and Mike Tones, the Manifesto Champions, have continued to be instrumental in keeping the Manifesto Action Plan on course. They have overseen two recent meetings of the National Advisory Group (NAG), one in late December and another in late January, at which the contractors, CfBT, PWC and Band & Brown, gave updates on their progress and received input from sector representatives.
CfBT are now well underway with the development of LOT1 (“how to” guidance and CPD modules). The frameworks for the guidance and the modules are now established and team leaders have been appointed to take responsibility for individual sections within the frameworks. Teams of writers from across stakeholder audiences and sectors are working with the team leaders to produce drafts of the content by early February 2008.
PwC continue to refine the preferred option for LOT2 (safety and quality accreditation scheme) and a second team at PwC are in discussion with the NAG over the structure and formation of the LOtC Council.
Band & Brown, the PR and Communications agency, have been active ensuring LOtC coverage in national, regional and sector press. Following up on a general LOtC article before Christmas, SecEd (a magazine focused on secondary education) included a feature on the increasing use of secondary school grounds for learning; The January Make a Pledge press release has achieved wide coverage across all sectors and in regional papers such as the Daventry Express and Western Morning News; The Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust also achieved coverage of their involvement with LOtC with a two-page spread in the Oxford Mail Education Directory.
Over the next month, progress on the development of the materials and maintaining a high profile for the Manifesto are priorities and all involved in the Manifesto Partnership are working hard to meet these objectives.
For more information on the LOtC Manifesto, please visit:
http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/teachingandlearning/
resourcematerials/outsideclassroom/
HSP Activity
What has been
happening in December 07 and January 08:
- Heritage Sector LOtC Conference – The date for the next LOtC conference for the heritage sector will be Friday 14 March and it will be held in Central London. The aim of the conference is to give learning providers a comprehensive update on the Manifesto, to share experience of LOtC provision and to explore the potential for LOtC provision in the heritage sector. Details on the conference will be sent out shortly.
- LOtC Heritage Sector Survey – The Manifesto is now well into its second year and as part of the HSP’s commitment to the Manifesto, we have agreed to carry out an exploratory study of LOtC activity in the heritage sector and also to take an initial measure of the profile of the Manifesto amongst learning providers in the sector. A key research tool in this study is the Heritage Sector Survey. This has been sent out to all members of the Heritage Sector Network and the responses will provide some important quantitative and qualitative data for the study. It is intended that this survey should reach as many learning providers as possible within the sector, so please feel free to forward the survey to others. If you have not received a copy of the survey, please email lotc.gemoffice@btinternet.com.
- Collecting case studies – The collection of case studies on LOtC activity in the heritage sector is growing, but there is still much more activity to map and there are many more case studies to collect. LOtC provision can be for a host of audiences including early years, youth groups, pre and after-school clubs, secondary or primary learners; the provision can take the form of one-off projects, on-going programmes of learning, partnerships between organisations, family learning initiatives etc. If you think you have an exciting project in learning and education, Fenella Hunt, HSP Coordinator would be delighted to hear about it. She can provide a pro-forma document that gives guidance on what sort of information to include in a case study (please contact lotc.gemoffice@btinternet.com)
- HSP PR and Communications Activity – The Communications Working Group (CWG), which plans communications activity across all sectors, next meets in March 08 but in the meantime, the HSP has been busy ensuring that it contributes fully to the coordinated communications effort. In January and February of this year, the Heritage Sector is the focus sector for PR activity. We have been sharing case studies and events with Band & Brown so that the excellent LOtC activity within the sector will receive some profile as a result of this PR focus. If you would like to raise the profile of any LOtC-related events, projects, reports etc, please get in touch (lotc.gemoffice@btinternet.com). The HSP has also been actively encouraging increased sign up to the Manifesto through the distribution of the Make a Pledge press release and thank you to all of you who have taken action on this.
- Publicity through Publications – We continue to look for magazines, newsletters, journals etc through which we can publicise LOtC. If you would like to receive an article on LOtC for your publication, please contact Fenella Hunt at lotc.gemoffice@btinternet.com
- Involving your PR department – Band & Brown are working hard to ensure a consistent set of messages about LOtC is put out to key audiences and are seeking to make sure they are aligned with the individual publicity departments of all organisations involved. If your PR department would like more information about LOtC publicity, please ask them to contact Fenella Hunt, HSP Coordinator on lotc.gemoffice@btinternet.com
- HSP Meeting - The HSP met on Wednesday 5 December 2007. They reviewed progress to date and established next steps, with particular focus on: the 2008 LOtC HSP conference; the strategy for collecting case studies and developing an audit of LOtC activity in the heritage sector; managing the relationships with contractors. The next meeting will be in late March 2008 (date tbc). If you have any particular points that you would like raised at that meeting, please do email Fenella Hunt at lotc.gemoffice@btinternet.com
The Heritage Sector Network – This is a network of interested organisations, individuals and smaller networks through which a free flow of information surrounding LOtC in the heritage sector can be established. The network now has over 100 contacts, but we would like to keep building on this, so if you know someone who would like to be part of it, please ask them to email lotc.gemoffice@btinternet.com and we will ensure that they receive the next copy of the newsletter.