Since developing the idea for the school and researching alternative approaches, one aspect of the school that has become increasingly important to us is building strong ongoing relationships with the community. To develop this we have started to build our 'community cloud'.
This will be a searchable database of local people and businesses that are willing to share some of their time and expertise with the children, helping the children's projects have an audience outside of the school and a valued outcome.
The amount and level of support would be completely up to the community member for example;
A local florist may be willing to have a group of our youngest children come to visit to see how the shop works.
Or maybe someone who has lived or was born in a different country may be willing to answer an email interview of their experiences.
A local grandmother may volunteer to read with the children once a week.
Or a local business may be willing to assist in the planning and ongoing development of a project. Even this could vary dramatically, as someone may find it possible to Skype once a week to discuss a project, or if we are lucky they may even be willing to have a student spend time in their work place. Either way we would hope that by working together the students would be able to develop truly useful outcomes for their projects, things that could be implemented in a real world setting.
We are really lucky to have already had people offer their support. We would love to continue to broaden the skills and experiences we can offer to the children. If you feel you would be able to donate some of your time to our community, or know someone who you think would be brilliant please email us at curiouserandco@icloud.com
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