Learning Away evaluation report highlights the positive impacts of residential learning experiences
Learning Away, an initiative of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, has released a report calling for greater use of residential learning to boost young people’s educational outcomes. The report, Brilliant residentials and their impact on children, young people and schools, draws on three years of independent research with nearly sixty UK schools.
Commissioned by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation as part of its Learning Away initiative, the report offers teachers, school leaders, and other providers of residential experiences clear guidance about how to achieve greater impact from the overnight educational visits that they offer.
Brilliant residentials and their impact on children, young people and schools is underpinned by a substantial independent evaluation conducted by York Consulting LLP and confirms that schools working in this way can achieve significant breakthroughs in learner engagement and progress and achieve positive outcomes for teachers and the school as a whole.
Residential learning is high-quality or ‘brilliant’ when it is:
- led by teachers and co-designed with students
- fully integrated with the school curriculum and ethos
- inclusive and affordable for all students
- deliberately planned to meet students’ specific learning needs
- part of a progressive programme of experiences
- designed to include a wide range of new and memorable experiences
- designed to allow space for students to develop collaborative relationships with both peers and staff
- planned so that learning is embedded and reinforced back in school
The report was launched at an evening reception at the Royal Geographical Society, hosted by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation. Sir Tim Brighouse, former London Schools Commissioner and a member of the Learning Away steering group, spoke passionately about the opportunities residential learning can offer particularly the most disadvantaged students.
“I have always argued passionately for the benefits of residential trips for all young people. But the unanswered questions: how do we optimise follow up? how do we get young teachers to make residentials part of their professional DNA? Learning Away has sought to explore and shine light on a much neglected and vital part of schools’ work.”
Peter Carne OBE, who leads the Learning Away programme at Paul Hamlyn Foundation, issued a rousing call to action for an audience of invited residential providers, school leaders, and education policymakers. He said:
“During the initiative, our partner schools have developed and tested a huge range of new and exciting residential programmes, including work to boost GCSE attainment, support transition, and inspire KS2 writers.
We have shown that residentials don’t need to be complicated or prohibitively expensive – so we’re removing the biggest obstacles teachers see when they think about taking a group out of school overnight.”
This publication has been launched as part of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation’s Learning Away initiative. Since 2009, Learning Away has sought to define and evidence the impact of high-quality residential learning and to encourage schools across the UK to commit to providing these experiences for all students. In addition to commissioning this evaluation research, the programme has developed a suite of online resources to help schools plan and deliver their own brilliant residentials.
Régis Cochefert, Acting Head of Education and Learning at Paul Hamlyn Foundation, said:
“We believe that, by committing to issues and causes for extended periods, we can help to achieve lasting change. We are very proud to share this report, and with it our learning from a five-year relationship with nearly sixty primary, secondary and special schools in England and Scotland.”
The summary report, Brilliant residentials and their impact on children, young people and schools is available to download from http://tinyurl.com/learningaway. A full evaluation report and executive summary, published by independent researchers York Consulting LLP, are also available.
Notes
For more information or image requests, please contact Nora Loewenberg at Paul Hamlyn Foundation: 020 7812 3300, educationassistant@phf.org.uk