Learning Away
Learning Away is a £2.25m Special Initiative that aims to support schools in significantly enhancing young people's learning, achievement and well-being by using innovative residential experiences as an integral part of the curriculum. The initiative began in 2008 and will run for six years.
Learning Away was founded on our belief that high quality residential experiences can provide extremely powerful learning opportunities for children and young people - and indeed, for adults as well. When we considered that less than a fifth of a young person's waking time is spent in school, the opportunity to engage young people with much more intensive, rich and deep learning experiences that residentials can offer was compelling.
A key challenge for schools is to connect residential experiences with pupils' day-to-day learning to ensure that the benefits are effectively built upon and sustained. Planning a progression of residential opportunities throughout young people's school careers can really accelerate their development as successful learners, confident individuals and responsible citizens.
The initiative was open to groups of schools from England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It is now closed to applications.
"For some children a week's residential experience is worth more than a term of school. We know we want it for our own children - we need to make sure other people's children experience it too."
- Tim Brighouse, former London Schools Commissioner and advisor to the Paul Hamlyn Foundation