If children are free to learn whatever they want, how do they learn what schools provide?

This is a common question when parents visit. One basis for this assumption is that somehow schools provide a rich, broad, child-centred curriculum that prepares them well for their careers and future life. Nothing could be further from the truth as the National Curriculum is narrow and unbalanced. It emphasises academic learning and undermines the chance for young people to learn practical skills. Every survey of employers has confirmed this view.

We have students who have been sent by a local secondary school to pursue their learning with us. In one example, the individual student decided that they wanted to learn psychology because it fitted with their career aspirations. They wished to do this to GCSE level and to take the GCSE in psychology. Unfortunately, their school does not provide any support for psychology and therefore there is no opportunity to take psychology GCSE back at the school. Their parents had to arrange, with our support, an alternative place for them to sit their GCSE. It’s a good example of the narrowness of school curricula.

Another example would be where a girl decided to take GCSE law and also a year early. Both situations are not possible in school. Firstly, that there is no local school where you can study law and secondly you cannot take GCSE subjects a year early.

One student came to us because they wanted to run a nannying agency. They had identified child development GCSE as an ideal qualification to take. They could not do child development GCSE in their school, but they could do it with us.

Our students are exposed to a wide range of ideas and thinking, such that they can make significant choices based on looking more broadly than they could in school. This was confirmed by the lead Ofsted inspector when they came to visit us some years ago. I had explained to the inspectors that we have no curriculum as students are free to learn whatever they want. The lead inspector and his colleague went and interviewed every student about what they were doing with us. At the end of the visit the lead inspector said to me: “It’s not that you don’t have a curriculum - you just have a broader curriculum than any school”. And he is right -students are helped to think about the future direction in life, and then we can work backwards in terms of what kind of things they might want to learn. It provides the breadth that schools cannot offer.

The other feature that works well is the way in which the community provides a rich learning environment. Students have plenty of time for informal discussion about their interests, and we know that for teenagers the biggest influence on them is the peer group. Our peer groups provide the freedom to explore widely. And in doing that individuals are exposed to a wide range of ideas.