Abiro Joyce, a 52-year-old mother, smiles and points to her son seated on his new motorcycle, a bike that he’s bought with the proceeds of his cassava crop. “I used to live in a grass thatched house and I am now living in a permanent house and able to educate my...
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In 1997 the Robert Owen Group launched a co-operative school centred initial teacher training project through the Marches Consortium and in partnership with the University of Gloucester. The scheme rapidly grew and became the largest of its type in the United Kingdom , successfully training over 3,700 post graduates who now work in our schools and colleges with many at senior leadership levels. Alongside this we launched a Master’s level programme for trainers in schools and for former trainees and teachers to access as career progression.
It became clear that the absence of an institute of higher education in the Marches sub region posed a real impediment to developing research, seminal thinking and platonic discourse. We often ignore the valuable infrastructure that comes with a quality centre of higher education. The Directors of the Marches Consortium developed a Robert Owen Learning Academy in Leominster and encouraged many ‘hub’ schools to have satellite post graduate libraries for their ‘clusters’.
This is all now background history but our 1998 creation of “query” as a radical journal of left field thinking has now in 2021 led to the addition of this section to the Marches Hive website. We want to stimulate thinking, discussion and the sharing of relevant news and knowledge.
We called the original 1990’s journal query because our minds turned to the creation in the 1870’s of the Tredegar Medical Aid Society which started life as as ‘Health and Education Fund’. In 1920 Walter Conway , Aneurin Bevan and others formed the radical Query Club as a new development. The Club was a cross between a debating society, a mutual support group , a focus for sharing contemporary knowledge and a body set on advancing radical thinking to address the issues of the day. In those times adult education was very much in cells following on the model of the early Methodist house groups.
We believe the challenges of today in many ways mirror those of one hundred years ago and we do encourage everyone’s to engage with query and to share your thoughts, views, knowledge and understanding so that we can all grow together . Thank you
News Articles
South Sudan: Graduating from subsistence to market-oriented farming
FAO is helping a women's cooperative in Wau succeed despite harsh climatic conditions and faraway markets. In the scorching heat of rural Jur River County in South Sudan, Akuol stands proudly in front of a delegation of local government, national and international...
Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow, cooperatives strategic allies
Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow, cooperatives strategic allies" From the Regional Committee for Gender Equality, the virtual event "Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow, strategic allied cooperatives" was held on March 21, 2022 at 9am...
Sundance Housing Co-op
Sundance Housing Co-operative is dedicated to sustainable living. Sundance’s first homes were occupied in 1979. After operating for more than 40 years, this Edmonton co-op has begun a deep energy retrofit (DER) project to increase the energy efficiency of their Main...
Fraserview Co-op
This year, families started moving into the first phase of Fraserview Housing Co-op in Vancouver on the north bank of the Fraser River. Developed in partnership with the City, this innovative project will provide affordable community housing desperately...
Faethorne Place Housing Co-op
Faethorne Place Housing Co-op has taken the greening of its co-op to another level. This Sarnia, Ontario, co-op already had a large community garden with 16 plots. What it needed next to become a green leader was a greenhouse. Now it has one, thanks to a $4,000...
Unified Saint John Housing Co-op
In 2012, nine small Saint John, New Brunswick, co-ops got together and realized they shared similar goals and values. They wanted strong governance, engaged community building and acknowledgement of the changing needs of their members. But most importantly, they...
Bringing Power to India’s Poorest Women Workers
How many times do we need to prove that poor women are bankable? asks Jayshree Vyas, managing director of the SEWA bank. In the case of this cooperative bank it has proven that about 97 per cent of its lenders meet their repayments a better rate than any commercial...
Lambeth Community Solar: A co‑operative career springboard
Lambeth Community Solar not only works to combat the climate crisis and improve the quality of life for local people, it also empowers individuals and gives them the opportunity to develop crucial skills. When 31-year-old Masharof Ahmed lost his job in a bike shop...
New report: Co‑operatives help tackle mental health and employment issues experienced by younger people
A chronic lack of awareness is damaging the ability of co‑operatives to provide answers to social issues faced by younger people. Offering Hope to Future Generations, a new report from trade body Co-operatives UK, finds that mental health, job security, career...
