In 2020 we are faced with unprecedented challenges from structural inequality, climate change, ecosystem collapses and mental health crises, to the fast-moving pace of artificial intelligence, the erosion of democracy and a UK education system that is no longer fit for purpose.
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It is widely acknowledged today that young people need to develop the skills in order to navigate this complex and ever-shifting landscape.
programmes. This ambitious programme empowers teaching professionals from central government to the classroom to embrace a new kind of thinking which will bring natural shifts in practice and delivery within the existing system.
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We are now on a mission to enrol the creative, academic and scientific communities in an unprecidented collaboration to bring transformation to education in the UK.
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From the architecture of the building to the thinking, learning and actions within the classroom, this programme will leave a legacy of enrichment and empowerment for the students, the teachers and the community.
What is The Great Imagining?
The Great Imagining is an intensive two-week plug-in to the National Curriculum. It aims to develop a pathway towards transforming how we think about education and the way young people learn and to directly address the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4.7*.
The programme is a young-person-centered, immersive and inter-disciplinary experience that draws on diverse expertise from game mechanics to promenade theatre, to reshape the experience of school. It encourages soft skills like problem solving, teamwork, critical thinking, empathy and self-expression.
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The Great Imagining also provides a model of teaching for creativity through its Continuing Professional Development (CPD) training
What will it look like?
Over the 2 weeks, the students will be building an engaging and interactive exhibition throughout their entire school. This exciting contemporary learning centre will be designed in collaboration with experts.
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From scientists and academics to artists, filmmakers, set designers and art directors, our partnerships with UK’s greatest thinkers and makers will ensure every school transforms into its own Museum of the Future.
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These exhibitions will invite in the public from families to businesses and politicians to enrol them in building a sustainable regenerative world.
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The Great Imagining will empower young people to be healthy, confident and powerful citizens and leaders within their communities and workplaces.
The Great Imagining has been partially inspired by a reflection upon the imperial and industrial legacy of The Great Exhibition of 1851 - the world’s first international trade fair.
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This historic fair, which took place in what came to be known as the Crystal Palace - a purpose-built glass building in Hyde Park - was, at its time, a celebration of manufacturing, innovation, technology and art.
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Open to the public for only 6 months, nearly 170 years ago, this was arguably the first exhibition with a global ethos, because as well as drawing on British industrial design, exhibits were gathered from throughout the British Empire, (as it was then), and beyond.
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With the benefit of hindsite, this seminal exhibition was created on the back of many structural issues that are now known to have had a profound impact on human culture and equality, as well as the natural environment and species diversity.
What is it inspired by?
Future Thinking
Humans are brilliant at creating their future from a collective imagination.
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The Great Imagining education programme will build on the complex legacy of this endeavour by reflecting on where we are now, how we got here and where we are going. It will reveal motivating and engaging stories of good practice and galvanising, impressive projects from around the world as well as within the UK itself. The programme will invite brillliant individuals and organisations to work with the school communities to imagine their world as they would like it to be - rather than accept the future we are sleepwalking towards.
Why are we doing it?
By creating this opportunity for young people we will inspire thousands of young people to kickstart a collective imagining of a Greener, Fairer, Kinder future and in doing so re-imagine the education system itself for the next generation.
Why is this needed?
Climate and Ecological Emergency
Over the last few centuries, humans have developed astonishing knowledge and technology as well as self awareness.
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But we also face urgent and challenging crises with increasing social injustices, climate instabilities and ecological emergencies.
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The multifarious challenges of the 21st century call for rapid and radical reflection and transformation on a global scale.
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To respond adequately to the fast moving pace of change, we need widespread culture shifts towards collaboration, technological problem solving and scientific truth telling - to shift behaviours and support legislation, consensus and agreement throughout all nations and regions of the planet.
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This will allow us all to tap into our potential to create sustainable, prosperous societies that do not continue to deplete and pollute our natural resources at an alarming rate.
Reforming Education
Against this backdrop our education system is no longer fit for purpose. Designed over a century ago, public education in the UK and beyond was created for a different world.
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With increasing globalisation of trade and loss of industry in the UK combined with growing awareness of human rights of equality and fairness our school structure and methods of teaching are failing to address the needs of as well as inspire large sections of the population.
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Increasing inequality growing from systemic privilege, racism and exclusion has been highlighted during the recent global pandemic and the massive exclusions from learning that highlighted. Debates around the recent #blacklivesmatter protests have shone a harsh light on aspects of the syllabus being currently delivered in the UK.
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The recent exam results have also revealed the inequalities and the implications of competative, standardised testing systems and inspection methods.
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These wider systemic issues, along side an erosion of creative experiences and the arts from the national school timetables, has lead to a broad consensus that something needs to urgently change within educational policy.
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The Great Imagining offers a practical and immediate way to address the crisis in education as well as the very real and global threats to our future on the planet.
Learning, imagining and creating
Where will this take place?
In Secondary and Primary schools throughout the UK.
This project is being delivered by training local, regional as well as national partners to enable, support and promote The Great Imagining in every region of the UK.
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These actions, as well as resources, best practice examples and experiments will include global as well as local perspectives.
Community Chest :
building a legacy of change
We are working with creative partners and experts, regional partners as well as the schools themselves to provide a growing wealth of training, pledges, commitments, initiatives, resources and funding.
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This community chest will support students and their schools to be leaders in their communities and be active in building a thriving, ecologically sustainable future.
The learning continues...
The best ideas and learning from each exhibition and experience will be incorporated into future iterations of The Great Imagining.
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Thus The Great Imagining will grow in intelligence, wisdom and utility as the best ideas and practices are revealed, understood and shared more widely.
What Kind of education system do we want?
New paradigms & pedagogues
Teamwork & innovation
Role of creativity in education
There is a growing consensus around the kind of learning that will create the workforce of the future. This agreement is shared by most industries, from traditional workforces such as retail, tourism and manufacturing to successful contemporary businesses exemplified by technology companies such as Facebook, Google, Amazon etc.
All these organisations are asking for student graduates who are creative and innovative thinkers; able to work in teams; confident in groups and can build shared goals and develop new solutions within fast moving contexts.
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There is increasing research and consensus around the value of teaching for creativity as well as practical skills and physical activities throughout education not just technology colleges.
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For example the 2020 Arts Council sponsored Durham Commission has recommended that the government set out a National Plan for Creative Education.
This need calls for iterative, collaborative, student- centred learning. The benefits of this kind of classroom thinking will generate engagement and excitement in all young people whatever their background, abilities or circumstances.
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This rethinking of the approach to learning and evaluating learning, will especially benefit those young people who have been disenfranchised and disengaged by their educational experience; those who are disadvantaged by systemic racism or prejudice; and those who have special educational needs or neuro-differences.
How the syllabus is being designed
We are working with designers, researchers and editors to build a landscape of knowledge and ideas encompassing the rich interconnectedness of our world.
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The Great Imagining syllabus is an exciting cross-curricular banquet of subjects from ecosystems, natural resources, biodiversity and nature to revealing the human-made systems of our contemporary planet.
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These resources are unpacking astonishing facts and information about how we live - how we clothe, and feed ourselves, power our homes and machines as well as organise our increasingly complex communications, laws and governments.
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The syllabus is drawing on existing expertise, knowledge and research to highlight the risks and challenges as well as the beauty and potential of our present and our future.
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This research is also revealing green shoots of innovation and best practice - inspiring glimpses of what a balanced, healthy, thriving future could look like.
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To deliver this wealth of knowledge and research we are making a series of brilliantly researched, highly illustrated, books — the Thinklopedias.
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These books and resources are being supported by a playful digital network of additional content and downloadable material from our partners and collaborators.
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The syllabus is designed to be interactive, drawing on the work done in the schools themselves, building and learning from the hive mind of human intelligence.
...and the innovative curricula pathways.
The Great Imagining offers young people different pathways to explore its syllabus.
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These customised navigation routes ensure satisfying, meaningful experiences for the students - and plenty of free choice - while delivering a high quality rich and engaging exhibition for the audience.
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The Great Imagining curricula pathways are encouraging and drawing on all our values using the capacities of curiosity, collaboration, critical thinking, imagination, creativity and resilience.
Like the syllabus, the pathways of the curricula are being designed in partnership with expert practitioners from many fields from theatre, gaming and film to develop multiple ways to help the students navigate the landscape of our syllabus both as individuals and in groups.
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The Great Imagining is celebrating collaboration at all levels. This key ingredient aims to empower young people to explore forms of teamwork, discussion, conflict resolution, consensus forming and self-governance.
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The bespoke curricula are drawing on the principals and methodologies of gaming and promenade theatre to keep engagement dynamic so that young people can follow unique paths and interact with the syllabus and each other in emergent ways.
Who are we?
The House of Fairytales
is a UK based national young person’s arts charity that has a 14 years track record of producing inspiring learning adventures for young people throughout all regions of the UK.
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We have worked in partnership with over 50 different institutions from museum and galleries to land trusts and local authorities. These have included organisations such as The National Trust, Tate Modern, Royal Shakespeare Company, Edinburgh Arts Festival, and the RHS.
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We have built a national reputation for high quality, collaborative, narrative-driven theatrical events, publications and experiences.
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We have set up hundreds of successful commissions, partnerships and collaborations which have inspired young people to be brave and curious; to love learning; to be innovative and experiment as well as nurturing soft skills such as teamwork, resiliance and confidence.
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These experiences have taken place in events such as Thames Festival, Glastonbury and Camp Bestival as well as in public spaces such as shopping centres, town squares and parks.
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We have delivered large schools programmes and CPD training for teachers in County Durham, Edinburgh and London.
in partnership with...
Opportunities for collaboration
We have a brilliant core team and have a network of over 600 associate artists and creatives that we have worked with from the fields of visual arts, theatre and music to design, engineering, horticulture, ecology and science.
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We aim to build on this network by creating an opportunity for brilliant creatives and inspiring innovators to contribute their knowledge and influence to this programme and thus access millions of young people in thousands of schools.
We know this innovative and much needed programme will play a vital role in helping us all to navigate our uncertain futures. We are now reaching out to the dynamic and brilliant creative, scientific, academic and funding communities of the UK and beyond.
The complexity and inter-connectedness of the natural world and the diversity of species.
Ecology
Our values
From its very conception, The Great Imagining is being actively shaped around our values:
Humans thrive in balance with each other and the natural world.
Ecological human nature
We acknowledge that biases exist and we are committed to dismantling the structures that keep us apart - all contributions are valuable.
Equality, diversity and inclusion
The freedom and intelligence of young minds and the power of young voices to inspire.
Children and young people
Capacities for a life of learning
Especially curiosity, imagination, creativity, critical thinking
and collaboration.
* United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4.7
" By 2030, ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including, among others, through education or sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development."
An opportunity for collaboration.
Do you feel stirred by this project and want to know more about how you can get involved?
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As we build this into a brilliant transformative experience for schools, we are creating a community of
collaborators and partners who can enable the project to reach its ambition for genuine cultural change.
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If so you can get in touch with us by sending an email to partnerships@thegreatimagining.org with the subject:
The Great Imagining and your organisation or name. We are especially looking for connections in the following key areas:
Syllabus design and content
Do you have experience, knowledge and practice of innovative syllabus planning and design, illustration or book publishing?
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Do you have a knowledgeable perspective on ecology, human life systems, systemic inequalities, social structures, technology, climate science, regenerative design or any other aspect of future thinking?
Curricula
Do you have a creative approach to engaging young people with big ideas and complex topics?
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We would love to involve practitioners with expertise or experience in pedagogy, game design, youth-led creativity, youth-working, conflict resolution, consensus building or any other relevant field.
Exhibition design
Have you experience in theatre design, film or TV, interactive design, museum exhibition design?
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Are you inventive and creative and would like to bring your imagination and your resources to this programme to help inspire fantastic exhibitions throughout the UK?
Regional partnerships
Do you or your organisation have strong links with communities in a region of the UK or beyond and would like to bring The Great Imagining to schools in the area?
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Would your organisation be interested in benefiting from our network of partner organisations?
Project capacity building
Can you help us build elegant ways of structuring and managing this visionary project?
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Are you knowledgeable and experienced in community organising, movement building, business systems, information systems, web design or project management?
Fundraising
Do you feel inspired to help make this happen? Have you a network of philanthropists or well connected people who would be inspired by the transformative nature of The Great Imagining?
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Are you connected to a trust or foundation that aligns to our values or could an organisation you influence be interested in funding the project?
