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Schools are for adults too:

schools, adults and communities in the Learning Age

Ideas are developing which put schools at the focal point for learning in their communities. Yet policies and practice based on these ideas are confused and contradictory. Where schools do provide opportunities for adults to learn, it is often undervalued or even ignored.

Too often, imaginative ideas seem to win recognition only if they are shown to help school students. Too many activities occur in isolation. Too many opportunities are lost.

This policy discussion paper sets out a challenge to government at national and local level, key organisations and local players to agree a new role for schools as genuine local learning centres. It explores the policy environment that is leading to a new view of schools’ relationship with their communities and reviews different models of how adults go to school. Containing examples of good practice, key ideas and a checklist for schools starting to engage with adult learning, it offers recommendations for government, local education authorities, the Learning and Skills Council and the Inspectorates, as well as NIACE and its partners.

Given the widening of powers available to schools through the Education Act 2002, this paper provides a valuable stimulus to thinking about how we can work more productively and coherently to meet the needs of adults in our communities.

Judith Summers has held senior positions in further and adult education and is a former Chair of NIACE. She has a long-standing interest in adult learning policies at national and international levels. She was a member of the Kennedy Committee on widening participation and in 2001 was the co-author of a study for the European Union on adult learning projects in the Socrates programme. As a consultant for Cheshire County Council, Adult and Community Learning she has worked closely with schools to develop their role as resources for lifelong learning.

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