A place based curriculum is about a place , for a place and by a place . It is designed to enhance the learning experiences of our children. There are a number of pieces of research (by the RSA, and individual cities) that indicate that grounding children in their city through place based learning raises their attainment and encourages them to be active citizens. Matched with the engagement we know is possible through arts and culture, we want to put culture at the heart of our place based formal learning curriculum for Leeds.
Explore the Leeds Curriculum on MyLearning.
The Leeds Curriculum is a growing set of Key Stage 2 online teaching and learning resources exploring some of the most important stories about Leeds from pre history to modern day times. It is designed to be an accessible and flexible ‘one stop shop’ for teachers. Each of the stories contains the content of the historical tale, matched to a contemporary issue and enriched with images / films / oral histories / archives / objects and resources drawn from all the arts and cultural partners across Leeds. Each story has suggested cross-curricular creative activities and experiences, and links out to all the organisations who host information, workshops and resources about that story. We are adding to the Leeds Curriculum all the time.
We also have a Channel on Youtube where you can find all the films associated with learning stories hosted on MyLearning. We also have a Leeds in Film playlist which compliments many of our Leeds Curriculum stories.
Why now?
A number of city wide, national, global and social factors make now the right time to develop a curriculum for Leeds:
- Attainment: We know (and can prove) that learning through arts and culture raises attainment across the curriculum. It gives children deeper learning experiences. It’s not an added extra; it’s a fundamental way of delivering curriculum goals. Leeds wants to focus on the attainment of its pupils over the coming years.
- Health and wellbeing: As a society, we are more worried about our children’s mental health than we have ever been before. We know engagement in arts and cultural activities increases a child’s opportunity to play, share and be inspired by life, all of which help with their wellbeing.
- Art for art’s sake: What would life be like without the arts? Would it be a vibrant, colourful patchwork of creativity? Life is a little more beautiful with arts and culture in the world.
- Time and capacity: There’s a lot going on at the moment in both formal education and the cultural sector. We want to work together to make life easier for everyone, and investigate co-delivery and co-creation in and out of schools.
- In Leeds, right now: We are writing a Cultural Strategy, setting up a Leeds Cultural Education Partnership (LCEP) and building on conversations we started through Breeze, Find Your Talent and Restorative Practice.
What can you do to help?
You can:
- Suggest ideas, activities, resources and partners to add to existing resources on the Leeds Curriculum
- Create your own Leeds Curriculum resource on a new them
- Talk to us about developing a new Leeds Curriculum resource
- Become a partner and receive information and updates on the developing resources
- Share the love! Tell everyone what we’re doing, use the resources yourself and share ideas.
Please contact kate.fellows@leeds.gov.uk to discuss any of these options further.