January 2025 Issue
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Here is our latest edition for your information.
Editor’s Note:
Dear Reader,
As we step into the new year, it's the perfect moment to reflect on the foundational elements that shape impactful education. This month’s newsletter begins with a crucial discussion: the importance of creating a robust enabling environment for meaningful learning.
Education is far more than curriculum delivery—it’s about fostering spaces that inspire creativity, ensure safety, and promote inclusivity. These spaces extend beyond classrooms to encompass the systems, policies, resources, and people who make holistic development possible. From thoughtfully designed infrastructure that sparks imagination to community linkages that nurture empathy and resilience, every element plays a pivotal role in creating an atmosphere where learners and educators thrive.
This issue invites you to explore how a well-rounded approach—integrating people, community, technology, and resources—builds a foundation for lifelong learning. It’s not just about supporting academic achievements but cultivating compassionate, confident individuals ready to make a difference in the world.
Here's to a year filled with growth, collaboration, and the pursuit of excellence in education. Happy reading and best wishes for 2025!
Enabling Environment
by Choki Wangchuk
Establishing a robust enabling environment is fundamental for any educational learning process, framework or curriculum to achieve its intended vision, establishing a robust enabling environment is fundamental. This environment refers not only to the physical infrastructure, such as the architectural design of schools, but also to the broader conditions that nurture learning. At its core, such an environment ensures safety, comfort, and inclusivity—key prerequisites for meaningful learning and wholistic development, particularly for young learners. Educational institutions must prioritise creating spaces that inspire creativity, promote engagement, and facilitate connection and dialogue among learners and educators. For example, thoughtfully designed spaces, integrating natural elements like light and open areas, can enhance focus, spark imagination, and foster a sense of belonging. Schools must strive to create environments that are not only functional but also uplifting and reflective of the learning philosophy they aim to implement.
Creating Enabling Environments for Children in the Early Years
by Lisa Bartleton
Courtesy: CACHE ALUMNI
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) (DFE, 2021) defines an enabling environment as one which is rich and varied that supports children’s learning and development. It gives the child the confidence to explore and learn in secure and safe, yet challenging, indoor and outdoor spaces. There are fundamental elements within that statement that should be embedded throughout an environment for children. Importantly, the spaces that children, play, learn and develop within should be safe to allow opportunities for investigation, enquiry, and discovery. They should be secure and responsive to their everchanging needs and interests. The adults supporting their learning must have the appropriate skills to be able to empathise with them and support their differing emotions (DFE, 2021). Ultimately, a child’s environment should be stimulating, engaging, welcoming and contain accessible, age-appropriate resources that entice, challenge, and support their development. This article will focus on those elements of a safe, stimulating, and emotional environment and how this should look for the child and be put into practice. Keep reading
Learning in School and for Life: A Holistic Approach to Child Development
by Eilleen O’Malley
Courtesy: GPE Transforming Education
Effective holistic approaches within education systems lead to improved academic, health, employment, societal and well-being outcomes across all countries. Such approaches also make for smart financial investments and have led consistently to improved long-term life outcomes.
These findings come from a new publication by Porticus, the LEGO Foundation and the Jacobs Foundation that argues that holistic child development is deeply intertwined with student academic outcomes.
The consistent finding from the literature—which includes the analysis of more than 360 sources—is that a holistic approach to education is a powerful driver of life success and an important buffer against adversities. Evidence behind these claims is robust, consistent and increasingly representative of diverse contexts, but how can we incorporate such findings into educational policy and practice? Keep reading
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Past Events
Philosopher’s Retreat 2024: Navigating Human Connection and Development in the Age of Technology
This year’s retreat explored how technology and digital innovation are reshaping human perception, emotional resilience, and the ability to form meaningful connections. Participants examined the impact of the rapid flow of information on intellect and focus, while addressing the challenge of balancing technological engagement with authentic personal development. The discussions emphasised the importance of preserving essential human qualities—such as empathy, creativity, and critical thinking—in an increasingly digital world. To read the full report Click here.
Technology and AI in Education Part 2: Optimising Benefits and Addressing Challenges
This two-part webinar series was designed to provide a nuanced understanding of how students, teachers, and school leaders are using technology and AI in education, and how coders, IT specialists and policymakers are responding to refine its application in the educational field.
In the first part of the series, the panelists – consisting of a student, a teacher, and a school leader – discussed how technology and AI are transforming education. They highlighted the benefits, such as personalised learning experiences, innovative teaching-learning tools, and improved administrative efficiency. However, they also addressed the challenges that come with these advancements, including increased plagiarism, diminished social skills and mental health issues among students, a steep learning curve and potential burnout for teachers, and cybersecurity and privacy concerns for school administrators.
This second part of the series featured a diverse group of experts, including technologists, course content creators, and policymakers. This session focused on how these professionals are addressing the needs and challenges faced by those within the school ecosystem, and how they are working to optimise and actualise the use of technology and AI in education.
Click here to read the report. Watch the video, click here.
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