4 Cs

To us the primary focus of all school activity is learning and hence it is at the centre of our vision. Our view is that learning involves developing more sophisticated ways of understanding. Education is the process of challenging and changing the conceptions that people already have and moving them forward. It is about transforming what is in people’s heads so that they ‘see’ differently. This process is not simply a matter of the acquisition of knowledge or skills (although both may be involved) it is about changing the way in which people make sense of the world around them and changing it fo r the better.

Given this, all groups in schools should be involved in the transformation process – students, teachers and the school as an organisation.

Changing what people do and think is notoriously difficult, but our contention is that the most effective way to achieve this is to create the conditions by which individuals come to occupy the overlap that exists between ‘thinking’ and ‘doing’. We want those in schools to live in the rich territory  where their doing informs and changes their thinking, and their thinking informs and changes their doing. This is not simply a matter of ‘reflecting’ on what is done and changing it (although again, this may be evolved) periodically. It is more about developing a state of mind, a restlessness for improvement and growth that runs deep but is balanced by absolute conviction to a particular course of action. Individuals who have this perspective will simultaneously believe absolutely in what they do and think, whilst at the same time questioning everything about it. In other words, they will be self- confident, independent learners.

This is most definitely not a transmission, top-down model of education where teachers know best, and students ‘receive’ understanding. We believe that there is a close link between student learning, teacher learning and school learning and that each has the potential to productively inform the other.