Community Connected Learning places pupils in the context of the wider community and creates opportunities for them to use their knowledge, creativity, talents and resources to explore pressing societal issues and create project ideas based on their personal values and interests, vocational aspirations, and concerns for the environment in which they live. Teachers help pupils turn initial ideas into practical projects, while connecting their learning back to the curriculum, and students work in partnership with local stakeholders to design creative solutions.
The aim is for young people to apply what they are learning in the classroom to their lives beyond school, and inversely, finding ways to connect their personal values and interests to their experience of education. This gives young people real opportunities to develop a sense of agency and purpose – the will and skill to positively influence their own lives and the world around them – and contribute to shaping a fairer, more equal, and caring world.
Community Connected Learning provides an opportunity to:
- Enrich existing curriculum content by giving a sense of purpose and connectivity to academic subjects.
- Deepen pupils’ understanding of and connection to the world around them while offering them the tools to change it for the better.
- Develop skills like empathy, creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, complex problem-solving, and community leadership.
- Activate student voice and agency by connecting content standards to social impact projects.
- Foster a positive school culture based on empathy, belonging, participation and student agency.
In the following video, #EdgyThinking Episode 4 from The Future of Education News Channel (FE News), Laura Hay, Shaun McInerney, and Rae Snape discuss what Community Connected Learning looks like in different contexts.
Edgy Thinking with FE News
Relationships between educational institutions and their local communities are ever more important if we hope to truly prepare young people for success.
Community Challenges
A great project can be transformative for students. Seeing a real-world impact gives them a sense of agency and purpose. See how the Creative Education Trust engaged their students in changemaker projects within their local communities.
