Robert Dufton
The work of the PHF Education and Learning programme is very much guided by our founder Paul Hamlyn’s personal motto: ‘there must be a better way’. If a better way can be found, nowhere is the need more compelling than in the realm of education where, according to OECD studies, British students now have some of the poorest attitudes to learning in the world. Although the reasons for this are varied and complex, discussions rarely give prominence to the young person’s response to what is on offer in school. It’s almost as though we have accepted the inevitability of learning as a cold shower: you’re not expected to enjoy it, but it will do you good.
We share with our Whole Education counterparts, a strong belief that this is not the way it has to be, and a commitment to helping to create an education system that engenders for all young people a deep and lifelong commitment to learning, and a commitment that extends beyond the school gate and beyond school hours. Our Learning Futures, Learning Away, Musical Futures and Musical Bridges initiatives are helping to develop, test out in practice, and evidence the impact of new pedagogical approaches in schools. Our What Works? initiative is helping to build understanding about student success and retention in higher education.
We are excited about the opportunities that Whole Education now presents for us to share and build upon our learning with other non-profits working within education. The opportunity for so many like-minded organisations to join forces in this way and together, to become a greater voice for change, is yet another way in which Whole Education will, we are sure, exemplify ‘a better way’.
Robert Dufton
Director