2020 Vision for Education – NSW webinar reflection

LE NSW had the pleasure of hosting Stephen Harris, Greg Miller and Stephanie McConnell as they unpacked their wisdom of creating student centred learning spaces in a recent webinar '2020 Vision for Education'.

Each panellist came from a different perspective from the Spanish example of Learn Life, to the Catholic example in the Parramatta Diocese through to the NSW Department of Education. Funnily enough, each panellist shared a similar view for education however it was interesting to hear the divergence of approaches in their delivery.

Stephen has created a learning environment unpinned with a democratic approach to space that embodies the tertiary philosophy that draws upon business with real world examples, combined with the learning equivariant of a co-working space. This space enables students to mix with start-up companies (all previously vetted) while delving into inquiry driven learning.

This example of education was then followed by Greg, who outlined the approach of St Luke’s College in Marsden Park. LEA toured the school over a year ago and saw the completion of the first few stages. Last night’s update gave further insight into how this school’s evolving identity and pedagogical approach as it is continually refined by Paul Meldrum from Catholic Education, Diocese of Parramatta. The result is a learning environment that focuses on each student, that enables collaboration and promote inquiry. So much so that Greg has reviewed the curriculum to find available hours to enable personal project time for each student. In way, this is similar to the democratic and contextual approach of Learn Life.

The event was brought to a close as we heard from Stephanie and the journey of creating the Lindfield Learning Village with the Department of Education. The stage, not age approach has proven flexible enough to enable Lindfield learners to transition between levels of complexity to suit their ability and understanding.

Overall, it’s clear the Learn Life, St Luke’s College and Lindfield Learning Village learners are in good hands. We personally cannot wait to see how all three schools continually evolve and adapt over time.

Daniel Smith

LE NSW Past Chair