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The University of the First Age  < ufa.org.uk>  Tel: 44 0121 3032606                                                                                             ( Secondary and  general)

by Maggie  Farrar

In the UK,  Study Support is the term used to describe learning that takes place outside the official school curriculum.  It is this learning that is increasingly being seen as holding the key to unlocking student potential, raising aspiration and improving motivation to learn in the mainstream school environment.

This growth of a more extended and open ended approach to learning was what inspired the setting up of an organisation called the University of the First Age in the UK.

What is the UFA?

The UFA is a virtual organisation, committed to developing out of hours learning programmes for young people in partnership with the home, the school and the community

‘Giving students more time to do more of the same, in the same way, with the same people in the same places, will not raise standards of achievement dramatically upwards, we need to do something radically different’

Tim Brighouse
Founder of the UFA January 1996

The University of the First Age (UFA) is focused on the 85% of a young person’s waking time which is spent in the home and community - areas rich in possibility and potential - but often where that potential is never realised to its fullest extent due to difficulties of access, resources and meaningful link up between the national curriculum and community and home based learning experiences.

The UFA has developed a learning framework that links the home, school and community in a  joint learning enterprise.  The Framework is built around the following simple, but challenging key questions:

- What is learning?
- What is teaching?
- Where is school?

What are the core principles underpinning the UFA?

The UFA is built around a set of core principles that inform its work:

- New partnerships in learning underpin study support;
- The uniqueness and untapped potential in all learners is the starting point;
- The liberation of learning from an ‘ages and stages’ approach is integral to the UFA
     - young people learn in multi-age learning teams
- The opportunity of ICT to create high quality teaching and learning experiences is central;
- All learning opportunities will model brain based approaches to teaching and learning and will explore how the application of accelerated learning and multiple intelligences can lift the lid off potential to learn;
- High quality training programmes for all tutors lies at the heart of the UFA

In realising these principles the UFA has become a vehicle for two important areas of development:

A vehicle for transforming our understanding about teaching and learning

Exploring brain based approaches to learning

This research into the human brain is still in its infancy but almost all we read casts doubt on the traditional classroom environment as being the most brain compatible space for learning.  The UFA promotes weekend and vacation programmes that immerse young people in learning experiences that move them beyond the school
curriculum and give them a chance to learn outside the mainstream school    ‘metronomic timetable’ (ie it’s Friday and it’s 10.00 am so it must be science’ in ways that develop and build on their own unique learning strengths.
Opportunities for real life learning challenges, apprenticeship and internship programmes in vacations are powerful learning experiences that enable a school and its community  to open new horizons for young people.
The brain works best in open-ended, challenge-oriented, stimulating learning experiences - where the challenge is high and the stress is minimal.  Young people learn best where they can take control of their own learning and maximise their own learning strengths.

Some Practical Examples: 

A.  Movement and learning - a couple of exercises- a happy relationship
The True false run-around activity helps students to work out their answers to the question : Is this true or false ?  and to run and touch either the true or false wall.

Stand up and find a new place to sit if   helps students to show their understanding of a topic by moving to a new part of the room.Who moves and who doesn’t provides the teacher with a powerful insight into levels of understanding.

B. Talking what you know
The UFA is building a generation of ‘mutterers’ - many people do not know what they know until they hear their own voice saying it’. Many of our young people have very poor ‘self convincer’ strategies - they quite literally do not know what they know and therefore they conclude that they know nothing.  Muttering and talking what they know helps the brain to ‘hook the learning’.

C. Real world learning - real life open ended problem solving
Students can use all the skills of problem solving, hypothesising, planning and presenting their ideas through ‘learning challenges’ in real situations.  Siting a new coach station for Birmingham, creating a performance from scratch, working on a community regeneration programme and planning youth activities and developing a publicity pack for a local national space science centre are some of the real world learning experiences UFA students have been involved in.
In the case of designing  the new coach station, the students joined the city planners’ department and worked along side the professionals for a  10 day period. ( The head of the Dept said that the learned a lot about his own team by watching them communicate with early teenagers!)

D. Showing what you know in a range of ways
Students are encouraged  to display their learning in a range of ways that ‘hook’ a range of intelligence strengths ( Multiple Intelligences, Howard Gardner)

Devise a game to teach a younger group
Create a mind map
Make an audio tape
Build a web site
Create a multi-media presentation
Devise a leaflet
Etc etc etc

An opportunity for teachers to experiment

The UFA provides a powerful opportunity for teachers to try out new approaches to learning.  Through working in the UFA teachers have explored their understanding of accelerated approaches to learning - they have experimented with music in learning, they have used whole brain techniques such as mind mapping, and they have worked with students to explore individual learning styles and strengths.  All this has an impact on their practice back in school.  Teachers see UFA as the ‘Research & Development department’ of their school, an experimental arm where focused pilot  programmes can be developed and the impact on students and staff carefully measured.

Who learns - who teaches?

Moving learning beyond the classroom into the ‘extended home and community curriculum’ and taking it out of the ‘ages and stages’ school model allows young people to operate as learners and tutors simultaneously.  Young people can take on the role of apprentice teacher in multi-age learning teams.  The role of tutor and learner becomes blurred and is in fact part of the same experience - learn and teach, teach and learn - one simple but effective way of integrating brain based principles into the learning environment.  Young people are able to deepen their awareness of their own and other’s learning style and they develop a deeper understanding of the teaching and learning process through having direct experience of it.

                                             peer tutors/apprentice teachers

         I’m like a teacher  and that feels good.  In this more relaxed atmosphere children seem to learn quicker - I think that’s really interesting.  I would describe the UFA as a school with a light hearted atmosphere.  For me its boosted my self-confidence = seeing how much I know and how well I can help others to understand

A vehicle for building partnerships

Learning teams
The UFA gives us an opportunity to create the very best teaching and learning environments we can, drawing on the resources of whole communities.  It is also a vehicle for forging new partnerships between the school, the home and the community.  The UFA is strongly committed to the concept of ‘learning teams’ - groups of people who work together to stimulate and motivate young people to learn.

What sort of learning experiences does the UFA develop?
As the UFA grows the richness and breadth of learning experiences also grows. UFA learning experiences after school, at weekends and in the holidays have included:  

•	Brain based approaches to revision and examination preparation
•	Philosophy programmes for sixth-formers ( grades 11-13) who then become tutors for ‘philosophical enquiry’ workshops for students in KS3
•	Apprenticeship programmes with city council departments solving real life problems and meeting real life challenges
•	Accelerated literacy and maths programmes
•	Integrated music and maths programmes

                        Students from the Maths and dance programme
I didn’t think learning maths could be such fun, it’s like I’ve seen the other side of maths.  You know the learning is hard - the teaching makes it easy’

‘no blackboard, no subject book, that makes a difference to the maths.  Here at the UFA we just get on with our work - even if the teachers are busy with someone else we don’t start mucking around here.  I’m really surprised that I did so well, it makes a difference when I am the one putting the pressure on myself to learn’

The target group of tutors and students also expands as the programme develops
•	Work with learning assistants to explore brain-based approaches to supporting learning on a one to one basis
•	The development of extended learning centres in Children’s Homes and the training of care workers in the homes as extended learning tutors
•	The development of extended learning centres in tower blocks and housing estates and the training of community tutors and older young people living on the estate to work as tutors.

The UFA is still in its infancy in the UK.  But regardless of how it develops in the future it has shown that the current model of schooling is increasingly outdated, and is limiting for both teachers and students.  The future of learning must lie in the connections between the home, school and community curriculum and the realisation that all learners are unique, intelligence is multi-faceted and can be learned, and the brain is far more powerful than we ever realised.  As educators, it is our responsibility to explore every conceivable way of unlocking its huge potential.

Some quotes you can use where you think they fit best?

We need to seek out new learning alliances, new learning spaces and new ways of approaching the learning experience to truly unlock young people’s learning potential and enable them  to delight in their own achievements
Maggie Farrar

Working for the UFA is like taking tight shoes off - I’m hooked
Tutor

I am constantly amazed at what we are achieving - both ourselves and the students - it’s amazing’
Tutor

‘I have been challenged to rethink what I know about teaching and learning - it has been a wake up call to me as a teacher.  We are opening up minds here, ourselves and the students, how can I go back to teaching in the same way again’
Tutor

‘This is my choice and my responsibility - if I don’t like it then its up to me to do
something about it - I have been shown how to take more responsibility for my learning’
student

‘Here we are shown how to learn better - we are shown how our brain works - I like that’
student

To find out more about the University of the First Age, go to  <ufa.org.uk>