Work with us

Crossfields Institute is a growing organisation, always looking out for talented individuals to join the team. If you have an interest in integrative education, regenerative social practice or transformative learning, and the skills to make a difference, why not get in touch with us?

External Quality Assurers (EQA)

We are seeking experienced subject specialists with understanding and experience of awarding organisation quality assurance processes in the following curriculum areas:

Health and social care – nutrition and lifestyle coaching, herbalism, trauma-informed approaches to health, care and education, equine facilitated psychotherapy, integrative healthcare, osteopathy, anthroposophic skincare

Teaching and learning – higher level teaching qualifications and therapeutic education

Agriculture, horticulture and forestry – biodynamic agriculture, agroforestry, community orcharding

Child development and well-being –Steiner Waldorf, Pikler and Montessori approaches

Foundations for learning and life – integrated qualifications for school age learners at levels 2 & 3

Qualification Developers

We are also looking for individuals with experience of writing and developing Regulated Qualifications.

Application by CV and covering letter or email should be returned to lead.eqa@crossfieldsinstitute.com (External Quality Assurers) or info@crossfieldsinstitute.com (Qualification Developers).

For more information and general enquiries, contact info@crossfieldsinstitute.com

Submission deadline: Ongoing

Blog – Education for Regenerative Practice and Sustainable Development

Education for Regenerative Practice and Sustainable Development

Beki Aldam, Crossfields Learning

As we launch our Level 3 in Integrative Education, we look at why we created it, what inspired us, and what we aim to achieve

Our approach

The Integrative Education set of qualifications was created to inspire learners to engage with their learning, and create work they are proud to have produced. It aims to raise attainment for all learners and reduce the numbers of early school leavers.

Crossfields Institute lead a project to explore and develop a type of learning and assessment that focuses on the use of portfolio assessment, and evidence of achievement from formal, informal and non-formal learning, designed to increase inclusion. This project was recognised and funded by Erasmus+ 2015 Key Action 2, School Education Strategic Partnership Project1, and has informed the development of these qualifications.

More widely, this qualification was developed as a way to address concerns that education is increasingly politicised and centrally-controlled, vulnerable to the short-termism that our political system often engenders, and the ideological views of those currently in power. The Federation for Education Development’s survey also concluded that, “81% of respondents believe a long-term plan for education should be driven by a politically neutral and independent organisation.”

This qualification was therefore developed by looking closely at the evidence behind assessment, rather than being driven by ideologies or targets, and out of a desire to engage young people in their learning with renewed enthusiasm and joy.

The Times Education Commission concluded that, “high-stakes assessment has become the tail that wags the dog. Of course some exams are necessary, but the single-minded focus on grades has undermined the broad and balanced education that should be offered to all young people.”

An over-reliance on summative, exam-based assessment, in order to achieve a qualification, is not serving the needs of many school-age learners. There are over 2 million children currently not in school, and 416 students are being excluded from schools every single month.

The pressures to achieve in such a system inevitably devalue and reduce time spent on integrating other important non-formal or informal learning opportunities. A headteacher quoted in an Institute of Education (IoE) report stated, “With high stakes testing, the whole of the school’s activity is based around passing tests.”

Those learners whose learning styles and needs do not sit well with formal learning and summative exam assessments are at greater risk of becoming disillusioned, disengaged, stressed and even disruptive. Geoff Barton, the head of the Association of School and College Leaders argues against the “baked-in” system of failure, that sees one-third of children failing their Maths and English GCSEs each year, to keep to the correct ratios: “Our education system works well for about 70 per cent of children. The trouble is if you’re one of the 30 per cent it’s a national scandal.”

At Crossfields Institute, we aim to create qualifications that work for all students, that bring the very best out of each learner, and exclude no one from a lifelong love of learning and a sense of achievement. This is because students are not made to learn material for exams, but can instead engage with exciting and interesting projects that will inspire them.

An integrative approach

The Level 3 IE set of qualifications has been developed to be integrative, in recognition of the fact that life does not easily fit into siloed subjects.

For Crossfields Institute, there are three ways that education can be described as ‘integrative’. Integrative education:

Engages the whole person – both teacher and student. They use and develop their mental, physical and emotional skills.
Connects the learner and their learning to their daily life. Their own experiences become valuable in their learning; their learning is useful in their own lives, within their particular context. The student’s educational experience remains relevant for them, and continues to do so as they leave the educational setting and move out into the world.
Connects or combines both different subjects and the skills those subjects seek to develop.

Education that is integrative will be more engaging, more enlightening, more meaningful. Students will have the chance to love what they learn and apply it wherever it is most needed in their lives.

Regenerative practice and sustainable development

The Integrative Education qualifications also focus on how to teach the next generation of learners, to live in the world in which we find ourselves. We now live in a new geological age, the Anthropocene, where humans dominate the planet’s ecology and geochemistry. Humans have become the single most influential species on the planet, causing significant global warming and other changes to land, environment, water, organisms and the atmosphere.

The coming years represent a vital window of time, in which humans need to drastically alter the way they interact with the world, and work towards a more sustainable way of life.

However, the world’s transformation to sustainable development is being impeded by the very way humanity currently functions, “at the core, we are the problem. The way we’re acting in the world, and the way we solve problems, is the problem.”

As humans, we currently, “lack the inner capacity to deal with our increasingly complex environment and challenges.” However, “modern research shows that the inner abilities we now all need can be developed.”

The Inner Development Goals are an identified list of transformative skills for sustainable development. They show us which qualities and skills we need to develop and nurture, in order to be able to meet the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

That’s why this qualification includes a module that enables learners to recognise and work on their own inner development. As well as enhancing their own capabilities, it may also help them to face the challenges and anxieties that climate change and other crises bring to their lives. Based on the Inner Development Goals, the module focuses closely on what individuals can do to improve their own inner development, and take care of their mental wellbeing through challenging times.

The content of the qualification has also been informed by the Gaia Yes curriculum, which recognises that, “integrating knowledge and skills for sustainable development into schools is crucial for the future of our planet and, more specifically, for the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and EU sustainability policies. We are handing over to the next generation a planet that must face several serious environmental problems and the convergence of multiple crises. It is important to help young people develop the knowledge, skills, values and behaviours necessary for sustainable development.”

At this unprecedented time in history, the development of this qualification is a response to the urgent need for relevant learning, preparing young people for the ecological challenges around them.

In addition to the urgent need to address the climate crises, society needs to resolve a crisis of skills. According to the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), more than three-quarters of small UK businesses have struggled to recruit in the past 12 months, with 82% blaming a lack of candidates with the right experience,

Young people are acutely aware of this skills deficit. Research conducted by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), Accenture, and Hays10 found that almost 1 in 4 young people (aged 17-23) do not feel adequately prepared by their education for the world of work.

This qualification includes an emphasis on key knowledge and skills that are relevant to the world we live in, including communication skills and intercultural competence; systems-based thinking and economics; action-based research skills and awareness of global perspectives.

Moreover, the Gaia Yes programme, which inspired this qualification, clearly outlines how important it is to develop students’ sustainability “competencies, twenty-first century skills and the outcomes of their national curricula in an integrated manner…. The emphasis must shift from information to imagination and from imagination to practical application through learning from experience. These competencies are crucial in finding solutions to various serious environmental problems and crises.”

The CBI describes young people as ‘work ready’ when they have developed their knowledge, skills and character. The IE qualifications follow the same structure, working with the head (knowledge), hands (skills) and heart (character, or attributes), to enable the next generation of thinkers, leaders and citizens to thrive. Each module contains knowledge that the students will gain, skills they will develop and attributes they will carry forward.

Education needs to enthral, engage and bring joy to learners. The aim of the Level 3 qualification is to do just that. As the Nobel prizewinning geneticist Sir Paul Nurse, said, “A curriculum needs to excite. It needs to create citizens as well as specialists.”

New Executive Director Recruitment

We are sad to announce that our Group CEO, Lou Doliczny will be leaving us at the end of February 2023. Lou has been with Crossfields Institute since 2014 and has contributed hugely to the organisation over that time. She has been a strong and consistent advocate of our work, and as CEO has steered the organisation over the past 3 years through the challenges of COVID. We are immensely grateful to her, and she will not be disappearing completely, but may from time to time be involved in our projects. Lou and her family have recently moved to Devon and she intends to spend more time on another passion of hers – sailing. The Trustees would like to thank her for her amazing service and commitment over the last few years and we wish her well.

Trustees are looking ahead to the next phase for the charity and are committed to ensuring strong leadership and maintaining good governance for Crossfields Institute. We are keen to build on our network of affiliated organisations and continue to evolve as an organisation. Lou’s departure means that we are now seeking a new Executive Director (see job pack). If you know of anyone who is looking for a new challenge, on a part-time basis then please do let us know. We are also looking for new trustees so if you know anyone who has a passion for what we do and has experience as a trustee please do ask them to get in touch.

Blog – Education and the Climate Emergency

Education and the Climate Emergency

Beki Aldam, Crossfields Learning

Traditional education

There are changes afoot, even in the famously lumbering beast that is the National Curriculum. After years of lobbying, Natural History, a climate-emergency related GCSE, is now available for students taking mainstream exams. However, the curriculum overall is woefully lacking, even in passing references to the climate emergency, biodiversity loss, sustainable ways of living or green futures.

Teach the Future, a student-led campaign group, says, “Current climate education is inadequate. Students aren’t being prepared to face the effects of climate change, or taught to understand the solutions.”

It is currently left to individual teachers to shoe-horn this content into their classroom, according to how passionately they feel about it. Dr Alison Kitson, Associate Professor of Education at the Institute of Education, argues that, “Practice varies across the UK, but in England at least, climate change and sustainability education have a relatively low profile, with efforts tending to be driven by committed individuals.”i Moreover, a recent research blog on Reading University claims that the latest government sustainability and climate strategy does not go far enough to develop skills across the education sector.

Across the country, that means millions of students are missing out on vital knowledge about the current situation, because teachers are not able to bring enough of this into their classroom – whether it’s because they are not well enough informed, over tired and too stressed to prepare any extra resources, or they simply don’t know enough to feel confident in teaching it. Arguably, heaping the climate emergency onto teachers’ shoulders is neither fair nor guarantees an equitable exposure to climate information for learners. Almost all teachers are worried about climate change, adding to the stress they already feel from an overwhelming workload.

Political educational issues

In addition to the lack of robust content about the climate emergency in the national curriculum, there is also the double-issue of the current political turmoil affecting education, coupled with the lack of decisive climate action coming from politicians both in power and in opposition.

On welcoming the new Education Secretary, the Association of School and College Lecturers commented on the number of changes to that post in recent years: “Education matters more than this. It is a vital public service. Schools and colleges deserve stable political leadership which addresses the crucial issues of inadequate funding and severe staff shortages caused by a government which has undervalued the workforce and sapped its morale.”

If our politicians are not tackling the urgent needs of the education, and they also are not taking the necessary decisive action needed over the climate emergency, are they best placed to make decisions over how the climate emergency is presented within the curriculum?

Skills gap

Whatever your level of acceptance of the current state of our environment, there is widespread acknowledgement that students of today don’t have the skills to fill the jobs that will be required in the future, to ensure society can adapt to a changing environment.

The new Natural History GCSE aims to develop students’ skills, “to help them go into a future career in the natural world through field work, such as observation, description, recording and analysis.” However, this doesn’t cover the skills required in many occupations that are becoming necessary in the ‘green transition’.

The Environmental Audit Committee warned this time last year that, “climate change and sustainability risked being seen as a ‘tick box exercise’ in education”, and that the definition of ‘Green Jobs’ was still yet to be finalised.

The IEMA warned of a gap of 200,000 jobs that need to be filled if the UK is going to reach its net zero targets.

Young people and eco-anxiety

Another important aspect of the climate emergency and education, is how the climate emergency affects students.

Half of teachers feel ill-equipped to deal with student anxiety around climate change. The journal Nature reported that in the largest survey of its kind, where 10,000 young people from across the world were asked about climate change, over half were worried or extremely worried, and nearly half said thoughts about climate change impacted their lives every day.

What are the positives?

It always feels disheartening to outline exactly where we are in terms of the climate emergency. But there are inspiring organisations and groups who are doing important work to forge positive roads into the future, through education. For example, the Ministry of Eco Education is working to pool resources and ideas on climate change, from teachers already working within the current curriculum framework. Not to forget young climate activists themselves, working tirelessly across the globe to enact positive change.

The UN points to the power of education to catalyse action and to reframe the negativity: “knowing the facts helps eliminate the fear of an issue which is frequently colored [sic] by doom and gloom in the public arena.”

Crossfields Institute

Crossfields Institute seeks to promote environmental responsibility wherever possible, and works to be part of the exciting movement towards a climate-responsible, regenerative education. Regenerative education is about recognising the need for a fundamental change to the way people learn. Instead of engaging with the world in either a destructive, or sustainable way, regenerative education aims to enable learners to become a hugely positive force for good for themselves, their communities and the wider world.

The forthcoming Integrative Education Level 3, which prepares learners for employment or for undergraduate university study, is inspired and informed by several international projects and frameworks that place regenerative education at the heart of the curriculum.

By doing this qualification, learners will engage positively with the communities around them, gaining essential action research skills and learning how to implement their research to provoke positive change.

It aims to ensure learners are prepared for a changed and rapidly-changing world, and equipped with skills that will enable them to take a proactive role in improving the communities and societies in which they participate.

To find out more, contact our Learning Team: dialogue@crossfieldsinstitute.com.

Crossfields Institute also supports qualifications which address the skills gaps and provide education on important restorative practices, such as regenerative land-based practices. Find out more about our qualifications.

Image credits - Jeanne Menjoulet & DeGust

Blog – Inner Development Goals

Inner Development Goals for Integrative Learning

Beki Aldam, Crossfields Learning

Where did the Inner Development Goals come from?

In 2015, all UN member states adopted the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. These goals represent international agreement that we have to dramatically change our ways of living, if we are to continue to inhabit Earth without destroying her irrevocably. According to who you are, those changes should occur very soon, right now, yesterday, or at some point in the future. But there is almost universal acceptance that something drastic needs to change. The UN talks of us being in “an ambitious decade” at the end of which the goals are met, in 2030.

Why are we not steaming towards the accomplishment of these goals? For many who are concerned about it, movement towards the goals seems achingly slow, or even non-existent. The recent return of populist governments across the world has further scuppered progress and, in some cases, introduced dangerous regressions.

Frustrations about this lack of progress began to grow soon after the goals were ratified. In early 2019 a group of academics, thinkers and leaders got together to discuss the view that what was impeding the world’s transformation to sustainable development was something about the way humanity currently functions, “at the core, we are the problem. The way we’re acting in the world, and the way we solve problems, is the problem.” [innerdevelopmentgoals.org]

Environmental lawyer and academic Gus Speth articulated it best, when he said: “I used to think the top environmental problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse, and climate change. But I was wrong. The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed, and apathy.”

This group agreed that, as humans, “we lack the inner capacity to deal with our increasingly complex environment and challenges.” Luckily though, all is not lost, because, “modern research shows that the inner abilities we now all need can be developed.” [innerdevelopmentgoals.org]

The development of these inner abilities is the foundation of the Inner Development Goals (IDGs).

What are the Inner Development Goals?

The IDGs are an identified list of transformative skills for sustainable development. They show us which qualities and skills we need to develop and nurture, in order to be able to meet the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

Crucially, there will be guidance on how to develop these necessary skills, which will be “open source and free for all to use”.

Reading the full IDG report is interesting, because over a thousand people worldwide have had an input in their evolution. And there were many discussions on how they ought to be presented. Essentially, though, there was a need to make them accessible, and easy for mass communication and education. Agreement was made that 23 skills and qualities would be presented in five ‘dimensions’ or categories:

Why do we think they are important?

At Crossfields Institute, we have a commitment that everything we do should make the world a better place. We believe that education has the power and potential to be a force of positive change in the world. And we aim not only to care for and nurture the environments around us, but to promote environmental responsibility wherever we can.

For us, then, the IDGs align clearly with what we wish to help our learners achieve – real, lasting, positive change in the world.

How can they improve and enhance IE?

The IDGs give us a framework to develop our own skills and qualifications. Many of those skills are vital to becoming effective learners. For example, developing your co-creation skills (as part of part 4. Collaborating – Social Skills) will ensure that learners are better able to work in pairs or groups to create their work. It will lead to more satisfying learning experiences; better outcomes for learners and teachers; and a higher quality of work that we can showcase as a result. Everyone benefits!

If anything, we think Integrative Education and IDGs complement each other. Arguably, young learners are better equipped to grasp the concepts of, and improve, their skills and qualities for life, in an environment where the learning better reflects the world around them; where their thinking is already connected across different subject areas; and where they are required to work in pairs or groups as part of their everyday educational experience.

Most importantly, the IDGs give us practical help in addressing the needs of humanity. And they help people to navigate the anxieties and uncertainties that can impede progress and impair the quality of our lives. Climate change anxiety, rising alarmingly in the younger demographic, is a very real challenge that we must support our young learners – and their teachers – through. As this article in the Lancet argues, “we owe it to children and young people to prioritise mitigation of climate change at its source, while at the same time investing in evidence-based tools to support their mental wellbeing in the face of this ongoing crisis.”

How have we used them in our work?

We have embedded the principles of the IDGs into our Integrative Education Level 3 qualifications.

The IDGs work alongside research methods, independent project work, cross-cultural competencies, eco-literacy and many other complementary elements that prepare young people for the next stage in their lives, and to be active and responsible global citizens.

How can you find out more?

Contact the Learning Team to find out more about our Integrative Education suite of qualifications.

Read the full IDG report to find out more about the project.

Crossfields Institute Level 4 Award in Internal Quality Assurance: Integrative Approach

Blog – Integrative Education

Integrative Education

Beki Aldam, Crossfields Learning

What does ‘integrative education’ mean?

The definition of ‘integrative’ is, “combining two or more things to form an effective unit or system.”

What happens when we apply that to education and learning? It becomes a multi-faceted term that encompasses many elements of the learning process, the students and the teachers.

The best-known version of integrative education (IE) is where the student learns in a way that combines or crosses over the boundaries between traditionally-divided subject areas. Sometimes called transdisciplinary, cross-curricular, or inter-curricular learning, students partake in learning that requires a range and combination of skills, and may include several subject areas. For example, a project making musical instruments that might combine musical, mathematic, physics, and handwork skills.

However, it isn’t only the idea that day-to-day living is not neatly divided into subject silos, and that by fragmenting the student’s learning experience into artificial categories, the student is working in a way that isn’t reflecting the reality of the world around them.

Education that is truly integrative also encourages an integration of intellectual, emotional, physical and social skills within the individual. It integrates the learner with the world in which we live; the societies that are fluctuating around them; and the planet that so desperately needs more understanding and support from humanity.

Why does Crossfields Institute embrace IE?

For Crossfields Institute, there are three ways that education can be described as ‘integrative’. For us, integrative education:

Engages the whole person – both teacher and student. They use and develop their mental, physical and emotional skills.
Connects the learner and their learning to their daily life. Their own experiences become valuable in their learning; their learning is useful in their own lives, within their particular context. The student’s educational experience remains relevant for them, and continues to do so as they leave the educational setting and move out into the world.
Connects or combines both different subjects and the skills those subjects seek to develop.

Education that is integrative will – we believe – be more engaging, more enlightening, more meaningful. Students will have the chance to love what they learn and apply it wherever it is most needed in their lives.

The good and the great

So, what advantages can this way of learning produce for the learner?

Arguably, integrative education:

Better prepares students for a swiftly-changing world, one that isn’t divided into subjects.
Allows students to come up with better ideas and solutions, when looking at a project or problem as a whole, rather than by dividing their thinking.
Encourages students to apply their skillsets in a fluid and dynamic way, rather than trying to approach something with a fixed mindset.

More broadly, we can see that humanity is facing some serious challenges, with increasing numbers of crises threatening us at every level. Things have to change, and education is a crucial part of that. Our education systems are not currently enabling people to function happily, healthily or sustainably in the world.

The challenges and reservations

Although there are clear problems with education, it’s still an unnerving idea to many that everything about the current system needs to be overhauled in favour of something different, a move into the unknown. However, integrative education isn’t a new concept. Pedagogical experts have mooted, examined and proposed IE ideas for over a century (Kilpatrick’s The Project Method was published in 1918!)

Yet, in many of the world’s mainstream education systems, IE has not been implemented in any meaningful way. There are reasons for this:

Time: On a practical level, teachers often don’t have time to collaborate in a way that would make their students’ experience truly integrative. There are many gestures and nods towards IE (numeracy in your English lessons anyone?) but these do not make the educational experience truly integrative, and therefore don’t bring along its benefits.
Organisation: There has to be some way to organise the educational experience. And there are advantages to structuring the students’ day so they learn a certain set of skills, and are able to focus on one thing at a time. Also, even if they did work on a multi-disciplinary project, they’d need to break that down into manageable chunks. Some argue that subject-silos are an effective way to do this.
Change: Embracing IE fully requires big changes to be made. Large-scale reforms are difficult and often unpopular at first, making it an unappealing job both for educators and the politicians who may direct or enable such reforms at a national level.

However, these challenges can be met and mitigated by the right IE system. One that allows teachers to collaborate; one that recognises the importance of specialist knowledge, but doesn’t restrict teachers and learners within subject silos; one that is organised and purposeful; one that works with education settings to support and implement the changes in a manageable way.

Where to begin

At Crossfields, our IE suite aims to allow all students to achieve their best and stay engaged. It’s also more inclusive than the current exam-based system, because it uses a fairer, wider range of assessment such as portfolios, presentation and performance. The courses run at both Level 2 and Level 3. Schools and organisations who adopt the IE qualifications are given support and teachers are offered training, to ensure they feel comfortable with and capable of delivering the materials.

Find out more about the IE suite

Relational Arts & Organic Design – an inspiring new course at Emerson College

Relational Arts & Organic Design is an immersive twelve-week course exploring the relational nature of the world in which we live through a rich programme of nature-based crafts, expressive art and observational science The programme is composed of three four-week blocks built around the themes of Enquiry, Creativity & Purpose:

Block 1 – Enquiry: 4 x one-week open modules
Block 2 – Creativity: 1 four-week open module
Block 3 – Purpose: 1 four-week final project

Students can take part on either a full-time or a part-time basis, choosing one or more of the open modules from the first two blocks. Please note: Block 3 (four-week final project) is only open to students who have completed either Block 1 or Block 2.

Find out more:

View the PDF file

Steiner Schooling Without the Stress of Tests

Tilda-Swinton-008 (1) — A class of their own: Tilda Swinton and Louis the dog join some of Drumduan’s 17 students on their school trip to Colonsay, with head teacher Krzysztof Zajaczkowski (far left). Photograph: Murdo Macleod for the Observer

The children of Drumduan Upper School never sit any tests, and they rarely sit at desks. Yet a recent inspection found a school full of happy and inspired students learning about life through practical and creative activities.

Private Higher Education to Face Tougher Quality Standards

In an effort to make sure private higher education providers contribute to, not detract from Britain’s reputation for excellent higher education, Universities minister Greg Clark says that they will face tougher quality standards. For example, they will need to register their students with the appropriate qualifications body before they can claim student support.

https://www.out-law.com/en/articles/2015/february/uk-government-to-tighten-standards-at-alternative-higher-education-providers/

First Official Steiner School Opens in Ireland

Mol an Óige, Ireland’s first official Steiner school, is now providing education to 136 pupils and growing. The school’s “delayed approach to formal learning” takes the focus away from textbooks and more towards developing critical thinking; yet they are still able to meet the required curriculum. Click here to read more…