MAKE LEARNING FUN WITH LEARNING LOAN BOX
What it means to be ‘educated’ is evolving rapidly, with new advances like the internet revolutionising the skills needed for an ever-changing workplace. Claire Smales, from Donaghcloney, and Debbie Farrell from Bangor, are working together to tackle that challenge by focusing on transferable skills and promoting delight driven education. Here’s how they hope to do this! When Debbie met Claire, she realised that they shared a similar vision for what education should look like, and perhaps even more importantly, they both had some of the same frustrations. “My children enjoy doing projects, but it can get expensive when you buy new resources for each interest and passing passion”. Debbie continues; “I was also frustrated at the environmental implications of this, and I sat down one day and thought ‘what if I could supply resources to families who needed them, when they needed them’, and the concept of Learning Loan Box was born”. Learning Loan Box is a rental scheme for topic resources. “This way, parents support their child’s learning style while having fun! It takes the stress, and expense out of investing in new resources because you can simply rent a whole box of things which have been carefully put together”. Meanwhile, Claire was spending time rewriting resources to make them more accessible for her children, and when Debbie suggested she put this effort to use by producing resources for her Loan Boxes, she jumped at the chance to work with her. She now runs TopicTeach, producing educational resources with a slight twist. “I found that a lot of displays and workbooks weren’t quite right – either they were too visually busy, cluttered or simply unappealing for my children”. Claire is a former postgraduate scientist, and she puts the skills learnt during her time in a lab to good use in preparing her TopicPacks. “TopicTeach takes a deep dive into a subject, covering all the quirky facts after building a solid factual base” she says. “This allows a more thorough investigation of a topic, but more, it gets you to a level of knowledge where you can discuss the really cool facts!” Claire’s TopicPacks are predominantly low demand, being a cross between a reference book and an activity book, which keeps in mind that some children do not engage with repetitive activities. Debbie and Claire’s latest collaborations include a series of Loan Boxes, which include My Beating Heart, My Healthy Heart and My Historical Heart.
Learning Loan Box Debbie Farrell info@learningloanbox.co.uk www.learningloanbox.co.uk TopicTeach – Claire Smales contact@topicteach.com www.topicteach.com @topicteach on social media
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