'I want the Co-op to be part of a movement for change and a catalyst for that change' The UK’s Co-op Group has launched a Levelling Up Impact Report to assess its impact on levelling up across the country and recommend future action. The report was...
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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
Alone in a sea of marshmallows
by Inez Aponte, illustration by Seb Westcott In a letter to Joë Bousquet, the French philosopher Simone Weil wrote, “Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity”. At the time, April 1942, there was no such thing as an ‘attention economy’. In the grip of war,...
Co-op Group partners with UK Youth for social action in Scotland and Northern Ireland
'Creating fairer opportunities for young people to take action on the issues they care about is crucial' A new partnership between the Co-op Group and UK Youth will offer young people in Scotland and Northern Ireland opportunities to make a difference...
An interview with with Yvonne Field, Founder and CEO of the Ubele
This webinar is an excellent opportunity to hear how an African Diaspora led intergenerational social enterprise is working to dismantle racial inequality.If you missed it, you can watch the interview now covering: Yvonne's own story now about helping build more...
Young entrepreneurs in Uganda
“My success is backed by the fact that I refuse to give up” Ingrid is not only a student at university, she is also a young entrepreneur. After building her skills and knowledge through entrepreneurship training, she transformed her ideas into reality and started a...
Why We Need Social Enterprises Today More Than Ever
In a world coping with a pandemic and the effects of climate change, social enterprises provide a lifeline for millions around the world. If running a business with a purpose is your dream, there’s never been a better (or more important) time to live it. It’s...
Young entrepreneurs in Uganda
“Be patient as you work hard” Stephen participated in the entrepreneurship training offered through the GoTeach partnership between SOS Children’s Villages and Deutsche Post DHL Group, and Entreprise Uganda. Today, he runs several small businesses and wants to give...
Social Enterprise Stories: Herts Urgent Care
Herts Urgent Care was set up in 2007 as a small out of hours service for local GPs but has grown rapidly to its present position of providing a wide range of healthcare services to the five Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) in Hertfordshire and beyond. ...
SEE: JUNE 2022- A month to remember for the Social Economy!
From Social Economy Europe ILO Report on Decent Work and SSE approved by ILC OECD Recommendation on Social EconomyEP INI Report on SEAP coming soon! On Friday 9 June, and on Saturday 10 June two key international organisations, the International Labour...
Our Social Value story: SUEZ recycling and recovery UK
Sarah Ottaway, Sustainability and Social Value Lead We are proud to partner with Social Enterprise UK on the Social Value 2032 programme, which we joined to raise awareness of the benefits social value can create and ultimately to encourage wider adoption of social...
