| Futures Thinking Workshops | Helping students to think about their future jobs, the environment or even the way they might communicate and travel can help raise their aspirations for what they can achieve, and motivate them to engage with various aspects of the curriculum. Futurelab are holding a series of workshops that aim to assist teachers in engaging Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 students in grounded enquiry into current trends and possible futures, and to develop skills such as collaboration, questioning, research and communication. The activities will help teachers encourage students to think about their place in the world, the structures and features that bring about the societies they live in, their own beliefs and their ability to shape their preferable future. The first workshop will look at the broader cross-curricular issues of Futures Thinking, while the remaining four workshops will focus on individual school subjects.
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| Learning and teaching Beyond Current Horizons | This page has links to resources that can be used in practical workshops based around the Vision Mapper toolkit, developed from workshops run by Futurelab and the SSAT. They can be used to help school staff offer both CPD and classroom activities that explore the exciting world of futures, supporting discussions on how they can start responding today to challenges in the future. The resources include warm up scenarios for discussion, introductory videos, step-by-step activity sheets and presentation slides from the workshops.
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| The Futures Thinking Teachers Pack | The Futures Thinking Teachers Pack supports teachers and KS3 and KS4 learners to develop approaches to exploring the future that are not about making predictions, but about considering possible, probable and preferable futures, in order to support action and decision making in the present. The pack comprises of 16 non-sequential activities and associated resources, which are also available as subject-specific packs for citizenship, English, geography and PSHE. |
| Futurelab "What if" publication | This publication is based on a two day workshop with participants from a range of design, teaching, mentoring, policy and research backgrounds. It highlights the importance of educational visions to underpin new school designs. The workshop aimed to 're-imagine' learning spaces, and actively encouraged the development of 'what if' scenarios that push the boundaries of current thinking and encourage debate of the relationship between educational goals and the design and resourcing of spaces for learning. These scenarios are presented in the paper, not as recommendations, but as a stimulus for discussion.
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| Innovation Unit self-evaluation exercise | These self evaluation materials are designed to prompt discussion and reflection about your innovation project. Completing the activity will support you and your colleagues to: review your starting point and success criteria, evaluate plans and progress to date, revisit and revise plans in the light of progress and changes in context or priorities. |
| Research Machines guidance for ICT in future education | From this page you can access a toolkit for planning primary schools and the associated ICT, and case studies for all learning environments. |
| Sustainable schools | The DCSF requires all new schools to meet certain sustainability requirements, from this page you can access a toolkit to support making the school sustainable in the eight key areas. |
| Design for Learning | This book details the Design for Learning project run by the Sorrell foundation |
| Designing sport spaces for schools | This is general guidance on the design of sport spaces. |
| 21st century schools: LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS OF THE FUTURE | Written in 2004 this report by Ultralab looks at the possible education system in 2020 and beyond. It uses the OECD scenarios to illustrate the potential futures for consideration during the design. |
| Assessing ICT needs | From this page you can read a brief review of the BSF process, and in addition Becta's self review framework, the Framework for ICT Technical Support, an ICT Investment planner, and a Learning Platforms functionality tool. The tools and planners are geared for existing technology, but is a useful place for assessing the best route to the ideal ICT infrastructure. |
| DfES (now DCSF) Learning Outside the Classroom Manifesto | This 2006 publication lists the reasons and support that the then Department for Education and Skills would provide for learning outside the classroom. |
| 33 Principles of Educational Design. School Design Research Studio | JA Lackney sets out his 33 principles for the planning, financing, design, construction, operations and maintenance of school facilities. |
| Learning Through Landscapes | Learning through Landscapes is an organisation that helps schools and early years settings make the most of their outdoor spaces for play and learning. |
| Design Quality Indicators (DQI) for Schools | The Design Quality Indicator is a method of evaluating the design and construction of new buildings and the refurbishment of existing buildings. |
