We welcomed a group of teachers from schools and colleges across Europe last week. Their visit was part of the Erasmus+ funded ‘Lessons from Lockdown’ project.
The collaborative two-year project is designed to help educational professionals learn best practice from each other through a virtual platform. At the same time, it is providing vital work experience for students who will help to create a 3D Map of the best teaching and learning innovation in Europe.
Exploring teaching and learning innovation from the pandemic
We asked Paul Oxborough, creative director of Momentum World, an organisation which has been working with young people internationally for the last 12 years, to tell us more about the purpose of the project. As one of the official partners of the project he told us:
“This project is a chance to explore the innovation that has come out of the pandemic. Organisations have looked at new creative ways of engaging with their students. We wanted to gather sixty case studies and lesson plans from across 12 countries. Those lesson plans will be embedded into a virtual space that is being created by staff and students at Chesterfield College. I am very proud that this project is happening in my home town.”
Teaching and learning at Chesterfield College
Curriculum operations manager for our digital and media department, Ebony Pascall and digital technologies tutor, Piers Ching showed the visitors the new facilities developed during lockdown. They spent time in the music department and the new digital centre. As part of that, they used the Edify system and explored how it can enhance learning to support future generations. They also discovered how we adapted to online learning during lockdown. We demonstrated the quality processes in place to ensure learners could continue to make progress and staff could develop too.
The tour also included a visit to the wellbeing centre. Here the visitors learnt more about the vast amount of services on offer from mental health support to the mentoring system and learning support available too.
Work experience
As part of an exciting work experience opportunity, three digital technologies students filmed and recorded the visit. They also followed the European delegation to Chatsworth House the day after the visit to college. This was the start of gathering content to help them develop the 3D virtual map, working alongside their tutors. There will also be an opportunity for the students to collaborate with their peers from across Europe to gather content to add to the map.
Proud of what we did in lockdown
Ebony Pascall, explained why her department were so keen to get involved with this project. She said:
“We feel really proud of what we did in lockdown in terms of the technology we embraced and how fast we moved online. We wanted to share our experience with other schools and colleges from across Europe. What the visitors have been really impressed with today is that we have so many support mechanisms in place; how our passionate teachers want to learn new systems to support students with their learning remotely and the way managers checked interactivity and engagement. The visitors were also impressed with our system of having teaching and learning quality leads to set the standards and drive staff development. This is something that they are hoping to embed in their schools. It has been really useful for us to share what we do. It has made us realise just how much we have in place to support our students.”
Capturing innovation and sharing it
Andrew Hadley, director of Momentum World and the Centre for International Learning and Leadership (CIL) and the official partner in the project said:
“What I have discovered today is that Chesterfield College is world class and that is very exciting. It shows we don’t need to be looking to the well-known names or big cities to find that level of innovation. I think what has impressed me most is the ethos of the college. The way the college focusses on the needs of the students and preparing them for life beyond college is a fantastic example and should be widely shared.”
“We thought by capturing the innovation happening in different countries across Europe we could share it and publicise it. We hope there will be enormous professional development for teachers and college staff, but also real impact on the future of development for young people.”
