Rethinking curriculum partnerships for deep learning and lasting change

Over the years, we have worked hard to make sure that our curriculum delivered authentic learning opportunities for our children, but partnerships with other organisations within our locality have made us rethink how this might be achieved. The Royal Society of Art’s idea of an ‘area-based curriculum’ suggests how organisations in the same locality can work together for the good of all. The aim of an ‘area-based curriculum’ seems elegant in its simplicity: to enhance the educational experiences of young people ‘by creating rich connections with the communities, cities and cultures that surround them and by distributing the education effort’ (Facer, 2009). The notion of a curriculum about a place, by a place and for a place was something that resonated with us at St Bernard’s. The same thinking has been extended by colleagues in the North East (Leat and Thomas, 2016) and termed ‘community curriculum making’. The old proverb ‘it takes a village to raise a