If you're looking for progressive alternatives to conventional methods in education, you’re not alone.
This online hub explores progressive approaches to education which are forward-thinking and aim to equip students with appropriate skills for the 21st century.
We present a variety of options so that parents/carers, teachers, students, policy makers and other professionals can make informed choices. Our directory includes a list of progressive schools and learning communities in the UK, and our Voices section showcases innovation from the state and private sectors.
We are committed to sharing the voices of key stakeholders so that together, we can reimagine education.
Why Do We Need Alternative Approaches to Education?
There are many reasons why progressive alternatives are becoming more popular, and why a growing movement of people are calling for our state education system to be reimagined.
Articles, News & Research
Spearheading the Education Revolution in Africa, by Damilola Okonkwo
I moved to Lagos, Nigeria in 2013, having grown up in London in the UK. After a career in Finance spanning more than 10 years, my husband and I decided to start a family in 2016, and I took a career break. This forced me to reflect on my own childhood and life choices, and […]
The Canaries in the Mine, by Jo Symes
This text that follows is the Prologue from the book, Square Pegs: Inclusivity, compassion and fitting in – a guide for schools What if our ‘square pegs’ aren’t the problem? What if they are actually the canaries in the mine, alerting us to the mounting problems in our education system? In her book, Troublemakers: Lessons […]
Outrage: Memories of Boarding School
Like many young boys in England in the early 50s, Robert ‘Bob’ Esau was sent away from home to boarding school at the tender age of eight years old. He found the separation from his family over the entire course of his childhood to be traumatic, and despite making many friends and working hard, he […]
Happy New Year!
Wishing you the best for a happy 2023. May this new year bring much inspiration to us all for reimagining education. 2022 was an exciting year for Progressive Education founder, Jo Symes. She was lucky enough to be accepted onto the School for Social Entrepreneurs start-up programme. This year-long training and mentor programme gave her […]
Is Self Directed Education Uneconomic? By Dr Ian Cunningham
Large scale education The main defence of traditional large-scale schooling is that it is necessary to bring together large groups of young people in these settings so that they can be effectively prepared for their future roles in society. The inconvenient evidence is that all the research on adults as to what makes them effective […]
Reimagining Education in Practice – Community Learning Exchanges, by James Pitt
Invisible Mycelium networks (image above) provide communication and nutrition that support the growth of many species of plants and a healthy ecosystem – is this a model for education? Fred is the parent of ten year old Max. During Covid lockdowns the school asked Fred to ‘deliver’ lessons that the school had designed, so that his […]
Rebooting Public Education – Part 2, by Richard Fransham
Abstract We are in the predicament we are with public education because those in charge have failed to apply one of history’s greatest lessons provided to us by Thomas Kuhn. Paradigms compete and failing paradigms do what they can to keep contenders at bay. There are two education paradigms competing, the dominant autocratic model versus […]
Progressive Education Events Line Up
June 15th, 11am BST – How can educators prepare students for adult life? Live webinar in the Progressive Education Group:- Ortal Green will share with us how, through Design Thinking, Glittering Minds programme for schools enhances students’ resilience, problem-solving, communication, creative thinking, empathy and collaboration skills. Simply join our Facebook group to attend and the webinar […]
Do Schools Kill Creativity? By Ortal Green
Education shapes our children’s future. But does our current education system provide our children with the learning environment they need to thrive? Unfortunately, our education system still operates on a twentieth-century traditional pedagogy where education has been about transferring knowledge to students. This pedagogy was designed for past requirements and doesn’t meet current needs. Today, […]
Real World Learning: School 21 and XP
Here is a report by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), commissioned by the Edge Foundation (published June 2019), which presents the findings of research into real-world learning (RWL) in School 21 in Stratford, East London and XP School, in Doncaster: https://www.edge.co.uk/documents/9/real_world_learning_xp_and_school_21_june2019.pdf While the emphasis in each school was slightly different – School 21’s […]
Punishment, by Sean Bellamy
”When people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.” Albert Einstein There was a rule at Sands until recently that fridges could not be dropped out of trees. There was never any corresponding punishment created. This rule has recently been removed because there are […]
The Side Effects of School: A Crisis in Mental Health Can’t Be Solved Through Therapy, by Dr Naomi Fisher
We’re facing a crisis in young people’s mental health. Every day I get emails from several parents, asking if I can help their children. They tell me how distressed their children are, how they are harming themselves and how they don’t know how to help. There are so many that I can’t see most of […]
Voices from the Sector
Parent Voice 3
Jessica – Unschooling Mum and Educationalist Educationalist, Jessica* currently home educates her four-year old and has chosen to follow the ‘unschooling’ approach. Jessica has worked in education for nearly 20 years in a number of capacities. She has been a teacher in colleges and universities, been involved in teacher training and the design of learning […]
Parent Voice 2
Ross Mountney – Home Educator and Author Ross Mountney is a parent, home educator and author. She started her career as a teacher which she says “was a bit daft really” as she was never at ease with the school environment. That was when she began to suspect that much of what went on at school was […]
Parent Voice 1
Kirstie Gran – Parent and Trainee Holistic Family Health Coach Kirstie has a son in mainstream school and a younger daughter at home. She’s become interested in progressive education since she started studying the brain and how it develops in children. She’s currently studying to become a Holistic Family Health Coach and previously completed a […]