The Studio School Introduction - The Studio Schoo

The Studio School
   Good morning, everybody. Today we will talk about a new kind of school which innovates our conventional schooling. It comes from an organization called the Young Foundation, which, over many decades, has come up with many innovations in education, like the Open University and things like Extended Schools, Schools for Social Entrepreneurs, Summer Universities and so on.
   As to innovations in education, we conducted a survey about five years ago. We asked what was the most important need for innovation in schooling in the U.K. And we felt the priority was to bring together two sides. One was large numbers of bored teenagers who just didn’t like going to our conventional schools. They said that they couldn’t see any relationship between what they learned in school and future jobs. Another was employers who kept complaining. They complained that the kids coming out of school weren’t actually ready for real work and they didn’t have the right attitudes and experience.
   To find what kind of school would attract the teenagers, we had hundreds of conversations with teenagers and teachers and parents and employers and schools. Our survey showed the importance of non-cognitive skills— the skills of motivation, resilience which are as important as the cognitive skills. We came up with an answer which we called the Studio School. You work by learning, and you learn by working. And the design we came up with had the following characteristics.
   First of all, we wanted small schools— about 400 pupils— 14- to 19-year-olds, and critically, about 80 percent of the curriculum done not through sitting in classrooms, but through real-life, practical projects, working on commission to businesses and others. Secondly, every pupil would be equipped with a coach, as well as teachers, who would have timetables much more like a work environment in a business. Thirdly, all of this will be done within the public system, funded by public money, but independently run. Fourthly, all at no extra cost, no selection, and allowing the pupils the route into university, even if many of them would want to become entrepreneurs and have manual jobs as well. Generally speaking, underlying it was some very simple ideas that large numbers of teenagers learn best by doing things, they learn best in teams and they learn best by doing things for real— all the opposite of what mainstream schooling actually does.
   Now that was a nice idea, so we moved into the prototyping phase. We tried it out, first in Luton— famous for its airport— and in Blackpool— famous for its beaches and leisure. And we found that the young people loved it. They found it much more motivational and exciting than traditional education. And perhaps most important of all, two years later when the exam results came through, the pupils who had been put on these field trials and were in the lowest performing groups had jumped right to the top. We started with two schools. That has grown this year to about 10.
   We think we’re onto something. It’s not perfect yet, but we think this is one idea which can transform the lives of thousands, possibly millions, of teenagers who are really bored by schooling. They want to do things, they want to get their hands dirty, and they want education to be for real.
   To conclude, we have talked about the Studio School and its design or its characteristics. We are sure that the Studio School will appeal to and benefit those students who dislike the conventional schools but like learning by doing things for real. Next time, we’re going to learn how the Studio School has changed teenagers around the world.