It was only recently, since starting my position at RP, I was pointed in the direction of HundrEd and have been completely awe-inspired since. HundrEd states that the purpose of education is to help every child flourish, no matter what happens in life; emphasising that children must be equipped with a breadth of skills to thrive as global citizens. The organisation recognise that the world of educators is full of hardworking specialists who are making the above happen every day, with their mission being to provide recognition and visibility of these inspiring and forward-thinking individuals and projects.
I had the great joy of joining the third HundrEd Innovation Summit on November 4-6th, listening and interacting with a range of innovators and education leaders from around the world; as well as, cherry picking from 50+ breakout sessions across 5 tracks. This summit crossed oceans and time-zones to help education stakeholders connect and share their innovative ideas and practices, being joined by talented speakers from over 30 countries with a global audience tuning in from almost 85 countries. Speakers included Vicky Colbert, Founder and Director of Fundación Escuela Nueva; Sarah Bouchie from The LEGO Foundation; and many more!
https://hundred.org/en/summit?y=2020
In a year like no other, it was fitting that the HundrED 2020 Innovation Summit was full of firsts – the first time the conference was held completely online; the first time they were able to welcome the entire global community of ambassadors, innovators, teachers, students, and education leaders from across the world; and the first time thousands of their community members came together to celebrate the selected innovators, deepen understanding of the world’s challenges, and to reflect on the opportunities of accelerating progress towards a shared future. In addition, the summit released three new reports:
- The 2021 Global Collection,
The HundrED’s annual Global Collection highlights 100 leading innovations in K12 education from around the world to anyone for free.
- The Creativity Spotlight,
In an age of rapid innovation, technological advance, and ongoing change, children need a diverse set of skills to navigate unpredictable dilemmas and novel opportunities – both in life and in work. That is why creativity skills are essential now more than ever.
https://hundred-cdn.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/report/file/35/HundrED_Spotlight_Creativity.pdf
- The first ever HundrED Impact report,
This report focuses on what HundrEd has achieved and where they are going in 2020.
https://hundred-cdn.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/report/file/32/hundred_impact_2020_digital.pdf
There were so many highlights for me attending this summit, the main being a very moving and inspiring tribute to Sir Ken Robinson, in which his daughter (Katie Robinson) emphasised the need and desire to continue the work of Sir Ken.
His work isn’t finished, we need to carry on his legacy. He used to say ‘great farmers know that to get the best results they need to focus on the soil, not the plant! They get the conditions right. If you get the conditions right in education miracles happen’.
Ken Robinson has been a great influence in my personal teaching career (and path), and I am committed to building upon his great work by lighting the inspiration spark in others that he sparked in me via his talks and books. I am planning to focus my next article on his work and how I foresee that RP can build upon his work and legacy.
I would also like to highlight the additional two sessions below that stood out:
Kiran Bir Sethi – ‘Design for Change’
This session linked to Kiran’s experiences in developing innovation education projects, which have been focused on, ‘what does it mean to educate children’; exploring, if we are human by chance, does education play a role to make us humane by design!
Dido Balla – ‘MindUp’
In this session Dido reflects on the impact of Sir Ken Robinson on his life and work; summarising that we should ‘lean’ into our curiosity and lead with our curiosities, to be our ‘whole’ self
We are definitely in the most challenging times dealing with this current pandemic; however, I feel it is important to remember the big picture of the desired path that we want to tread. Therefore, lets take stock of our passions and purpose, ensuring that we do not let the sparks of inspiration that have been lit in us be extinguished (or damped).
Simon Brent
Trainer of Professionals