Welcome to

Open Futures

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Sub title

Open Futures linking learning and life

Welcome to Open Futures

It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to Open Futures,
a skills and enquiry-based curriculum development programme,
linking learning and life.
My Trust, our dedicated staff, and our professional partners have
been developing Open Futures since 2005 in collaboration with
64 Pilot and Partnership schools situated in different parts of the
country, each with unique needs and in diverse contexts. I am
very grateful for all of their hard work, innovation and inspiration,
which have helped to shape Open Futures into the fast-growing and
relevant programme that it is today.

share their experiences and insights about how to make the most
of Open Futures and the results they have seen, will be helpful as
you consider joining the programme and the Open Futures network.

Just as learning is an ongoing process, Open Futures will continue

to evolve as more schools bring their experiences and expertise to
the initiative. I am confident that this programme will continue to
contribute to and enhance the very valuable work that you do.

With all my best wishes

Together we will be building on the successful work of the growing

number of schools across the country, who are already part of the
Open Futures initiative and I hope you will find that being able to

Above all, what has been confirmed since 2005, is that Open Futures
can be a catalyst for positive change within schools. I wish you
every success and hope that you will find Open Futures to be the
same catalyst for change that our pilot schools have found it to be.

Lady Hamlyn
Chair of Trustees, The Helen Hamlyn Trust

Our vision
We want to nurture positive, independent
individuals who are going to be able to make
a valuable contribution to society.
Our vision is that, by 2020, primary school children who have taken
part in Open Futures, will be progressing through the education
system with a greater knowledge and understanding of the
world around them, a love of learning and the skills, aspirations,
confidence and values to make the most of their adult lives.

What we are aiming to do is to find the spark

that lights the desire to learn in each child.
Since introducing Open Futures there is a
purpose behind everything they do, which is the
key thing.
Mary Pavard, Headteacher, Tangmere Primary School

Philosophy and practice

How does Open Futures support learning?

Open Futures allows primary school children to learn practical

skills, discover personal interests and develop values that make
them excited about learning and what they can achieve in the
future, benefitting their adult relationships and working lives.
Open Futures interacts with key government priorities including
priorities for childrens health and well-being, enhancing and
extending the way they can be applied in primary schools. In
particular, Open Futures is:
Involving and supporting parents in strategies to promote
healthy eating, including encouraging young children to grow
their own vegetables and fruit and then prepare and cook food
for themselves;

There is a Ripple Effect children are taking

ideas from the project home, there are more
children cooking at home with parents.
Evaluation report 2009 Leeds Headteacher, 3rd year Open Futures

Ensuring that children have the appropriate skills, attitudes

and confidence to become active, enthusiastic and, more
importantly, independent learners;
Helping children to make a positive contribution to society and
to understand and appreciate the value of cultural diversity;
Increasing motivation and interest in learning, and thereby
improving attendance and behaviour;
Supporting the raising of attainment levels at key stages 1 and 2
in literacy, numeracy, science and ICT in the context of a broad,
rich and enjoyable curriculum for pupils of all abilities;
Helping to develop inclusive and enterprising schools, in
particular, the extent to which they are able to forge stronger
teaching and learning links with their local communities.

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The four strands

How do they support childrens learning?

Central to Open Futures strands is the extent to which the four strands overlap and interact.
askit provides the skills of dialogue and questioning which result in enhancing the
experiences offered by growit, cookit and filmit. Children are better equipped as independent
thinkers and learners to ask questions, discuss options, make decisions as a team and try
things out.
askit enables children and teachers to experience an
approach to teaching and learning called Philosophy
for Children (P4C), that is both motivating and
challenging. It has developed over 30 years and is
practised in 60 countries, P4C engages children with
their learning and develops invaluable life skills. It
offers children the chance to explore important concepts, improve
their thinking, appreciate others points of view, make more sense
of their world, better understand others and themselves and judge
what is reasonable to believe and value.

growit equips teachers and children with the skills,

confidence and techniques to create and maintain a
productive, edible garden and to garden sustainably.
Teachers and children are taught by expert trainers
from the Royal Horticultural Society about seasonality,
how to select and use appropriate tools, how to sow,
grow and tend to their own produce and to appreciate the wonderful
flavour of fresh produce harvested in its natural season.

food people grow, cook and eat in different parts of the world,
looking at the ethics of food production; history and geography
where plants are located and why, effects of weather and climate;
English; listening to instructions, keeping journals and records,
expanding their vocabulary as they plan their gardens and recipes
growing and cooking can involve the whole curriculum.

cookit engages children with the hands-on

experience of preparing their produce for the table,
thereby developing a positive food culture and
providing a good culinary understanding of how
the food they grow in school relates to their own
physical development and well-being.
As pupils grow and cook, their new skills and knowledge will
support and enhance their future choices. These hands-on
processes also provide opportunities to enhance other forms
of learning such as mathematics measuring, weighing and
problem solving; science understanding habitats, lifecycles and
seasons, investigating what makes plants grow and why; health
making simple choices that improve health and well-being; global
citizenship recognising differences and similarities between the

filmit is an internet-video system that helps

children document and share ongoing project work.
Children and teachers use video cameras to record
events, activities, drama; whatever captures their
imagination. They then edit and upload the films
on to the shared community website, where they
are watched by and attract comments from the other participating
schools. By combining video production with internet sharing, filmit
is innovative, exciting and relevant for children. For teachers it offers
a way to work creatively with new technologies; to explore alternative
forms of literacy and fresh ways to document their pupils work.

We have an educational context which is target driven. As a head

I am responsible for the results achieved here Open Futures, and
the ethos of educating the whole child, helps to mitigate this
context, to keep us in touch with our philosophy of education.
Evaluation Report 2009 Wakefield Headteacher, 3rd year Open Futures

Open Futures offers senior leaders a strategic framework to achieve

their vision. Involvement in the programme gives permission and
lots of support to adopt the Open Futures approach to learning and
teaching, which connects with deeply held values amongst teachers
and school leaders. Open Futures sits at the heart of curriculum
development, underpinning it both in ethos and in practice.
In engaging with the four strands of Open Futures, schools can
involve pupils in fresh, motivating, highly practical learning
experiences which:
f ulfil the aims of the new Primary Curriculum successful
learners, confident individuals and responsible citizens;
fully support its essentials for learning and life literacy,
numeracy and ICT, skills and attitudes, personal development;
offer exciting ways of developing all six of the six areas of
learning with an increased emphasis on first-hand experiences
or learning by doing and learning through making
mathematical understanding, scientific and technological

understanding, understanding English, communication and

languages, human, social and environmental understanding,
understanding the arts and design, understanding physical
health and well-being;
deliver the outcomes of Every Child Matters be healthy, stay
safe, enjoy and achieve, make a positive contribution, achieve
economic well-being;
help to develop partnerships between schools and their
communities, drawing in skilled adults to work alongside
teachers in providing and delivering the curriculum. Open
Futures encourages community involvement in young peoples
learning and thus supports community cohesion. Links with
schools in India supports and promotes community cohesion
in an international context.
The Pilot schools have shown how involvement in Open Futures has
helped them to improve attainment, behaviour, attendance and
physical and emotional well-being.

Who is involved
The Open Futures Partners

Open Futures is directed and funded by

the Helen Hamlyn Trust. The programme
responds to the Trusts concerns about
childrens health and well-being and the
need to engage children at the earliest
stages of their education in developing skills
and values for life and learning.

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For Open Futures the Trust has brought together a number of highly
respected organisations and individuals to work in partnership
with schools to establish and develop the skills and enquiry-based
learning programme.
SAPERE, the UK charity for Philosophy for Children (P4C)
manages the askit Strand;
The Royal Horticultural Society manages the growit strand;
T he RSA-founded Focus on Food Campaign manages the
cookit strand;
The filmit team is managed by the Executive Director of Fabrica
and Benetton online and an Independent interaction designer.
The Research Centre for Learning and Teaching at the
University of Newcastle upon Tyne advises on enquiry within
the curriculum;

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How it works

The four Steps to becoming and staying an Open Futures School

One of the most valuable resources of Open Futures is the interest,
knowledge and motivation that specialists bring with them. It
gives strong authenticity to proceedings.
Professor David Leat, Evaluator, CFLT, Newcastle University

Open Futures consists of a set of powerful tools, proven resources

support and training for teachers to enable schools to develop their
curriculum in a way that is tailored to their needs and ambitions.
The Open Futures website also provides easy access to ongoing
expert advice and support.
Open Futures is best developed, extended, embedded and
sustained when groups of six or seven schools work together in
supportive networks.

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Integrating Open Futures into the curriculum is planned personally

with each participating headteacher and then teacher training is
delivered by specialists from each of the strands.
It is recommended that schools who are in the early stages
of developing a skills and enquiry-based curriculum and are new to
Open Futures consider planning their training in phases or steps.

Step 1 Introductory Membership of Open Futures

This consists of four training experiences:

1.

An Open Futures Curriculum Specialist will visit your school to

discuss the skills and enquiry based learning programme in
the context of your own development plans. The specialist will
provide information about the philosophical and pedagogical
underpinnings of Open Futures and its four strands.

2.

You will be invited to spend a day with five other headteachers

on a visit to an Existing Open Futures School. You will be able
to observe Open Futures lessons and learn more about the
management of the learning programme directly from an
experienced headteacher.

3.

You will be registered as an introductory member of the Open

Futures Online Learning Community. This provides ongoing
consultation with your curriculum specialist and other expert
advice, as well as access to the filmit website.

4.

Two places will be reserved for your school at a one day Open
Futures Conference. This will provide you and another member
of your staff with the opportunity to meet Open Futures
professional trainers from the four strands, representatives
from other participating schools and to experience a number of
valuable core training activities.

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Step 2 askit and enquiry

Step 3 growit, cookit and filmit

It is recommended that training in managing enquiry across the

curriculum and delivering the askit strand precedes training in the
other three skill-based strands.

It is recommended that training in each of the three strands of

Open Futures takes place simultaneously during one school year.
However some schools may wish to spread the training programme
over two or three years, focusing each year on implementing a
single strand.

Step 2 consists of four interlinked activities:

1.

askit level 1 training for the whole staff. This is a two-day course
validated and facilitated by Sapere trainers experienced in
delivering askit (the specially adapted version of Philosophy for
Children or P4C);

2.

Following the training teachers and pupils can maintain a

dialogue on-line and seek ongoing advice from our askit experts
who are there to help. There will also be the opportunity for
schools to share P4C related teaching ideas and stimulus
materials and seek advice from each other;

3.

Personal support from the schools own Open Futures Curriculum

Specialist continues with a visit each term to support the
embedding of askit within your school and to advise the senior
management team in developing the enquiry curriculum. The
curriculum specialist will also be able to provide online support;

4.

Each school will be invited to send two representatives to an

Open Futures national conference delivered by experienced
headteachers and other experts. The focus will be on
developing enquiry across the curriculum and the four strands.

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Training in each strand consists of three days of on-site support

provided by each of the Open Futures Partners nine days in all. The
trainers are accredited by the RHS, Focus on Food, and the filmit
Team.
Schools subscribing to Step 3 are also provided with the full support
service available from the Open Futures online community. This
includes continued dialogue with the schools own Open Futures
Curriculum Specialist and experts from each strand.
All schools have two places reserved at an annual national Open
Futures conference. Its focus will be on embedding strand training
and planning for the ongoing development and sustainability of the
Open Futures programme in your school.

Step 4 Joining the Open Futures network

Once schools have implemented Open Futures we recommend
that they join the Open Futures network to continue to extend and
embed the programme. By joining the Open Futures network they
get ongoing access to:

1.
2.

Advanced training workshops, seminars, conferences;

3.
4.
5.

Make use of and participate in filmit;

Regular e-newsletters;

6.

The national Open Futures conferences.

The Open Futures online learning community and

associated services;

Information on events, competitions, new resources, courses,

funding opportunities, new partnerships;

Open Futures has had such a positive impact on

everyone involved pupils, staff and the wider
community. Everyone is planning and working
together and theres a great sense of sharing
and empathy, a real community spirit.
Colleen Gibson, Head Teacher, St James CE (VC) Junior & Infant School.

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To find out more go to

www.openfutures.com
Meet the team at
www.openfutures.com/people
Register for Step 1 online at
www.openfutures.com/register

Open Futures
7200 The Quorum
Oxford Business Park North
Oxford
OX4 2JZ
Telephone 01865 481 402

The Helen Hamlyn Trust