When a child steps into a school, they deserve more than a confined view of what learning can be.
In this short reflection, we explore how Learnlife reimagines education as a journey of curiosity and real-world discovery — opening the windows wide so learners can see, feel, and shape the world for themselves.
Stephen Harris, Chief Learning Officer at Learnlife:
When a child goes into a school, it's a little bit like you're putting them into a room and hopefully that room has a window at least out into the world. Sometimes that window is way too small, other times it's lovely and large and as a child who's young and curious can actually see the world.
Sadly, the education systems of the world that we all understand that we went through ourselves as parents, it's likely draw very heavy curtains across that window and block it out completely and kids get told you can only open those curtains with an exam.
That is so false. And it's actually soul-destroying for many kids because it doesn't
actually assess them correctly.
First of all, Learnlife wants to open the window so the kids actually experience the real world and do that without losing their curiosity, their adventure and their joy of life going through. We're not only opening those curtains, we're getting rid of them so that those curtains no longer exist for kids. We don't place the exam as the barrier over which you have to go.
We actually try and not only open the window but actually get the kids out into the world where they start to understand what is it that they're passionate about, what would they like to do and then all of the pathways become bespoke and personal in that context.
I guess that metaphor of that room still exists but we know that that room has to be full of light, full of love, and it has to be open to the world as young as we can bring it. We know that the future is changing.
We know that the individual pathways are different and we've removed that curtain. We
want kids to understand where they're going and what they need to do to not only
survive but to thrive and flourish.