After a strike over pay and conditions at a New York City university, Trebor Scholz from the Platform Cooperativism Consortium looks to a new model for education Established more than a century ago, The New School was set up in New York City as a haven for academic...
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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
Informal women workers’ network Wiego receives award at World Economic Forum
The organisation won the Schwab Foundation's prize for collective social innovation at the event, taking place in Davos Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (Wiego), a global network supporting women in the informal economy, has been recognised at...
Platform Co-op School offers 22 learning sessions for a fairer digital economy
The programme, which runs from this month until July, has been developed with the input of 45 organisations around the world The Platform Co-op School is running 22 online learning sessions as part of its efforts to encourage the development of democratic,...
NEW BEGINNINGS
Spring is nearing. The first signs of new growth are sprouting. Snowdrops and crocus are colouring banks and gardens and the stirrings of hope for brighter days begin. Fresh Start is feeling those same stirrings, of hope, excitement, and determination,...
Romania’s first non-bank financier for social enterprises gets nod from regulator
Romania’s first non-bank financier for social enterprises gets nod from regulator Romanian social enterprises, including co-operatives, will be able to secure loans from the country’s first non-bank financial institution dedicated exclusively to social entrepreneurs....
‘Why there is a place for co-ops in the UK energy system’
Opinion piece from Alex Bird as debate continues over the future of the country's energy supply Sadly, I wasn’t able to get to Co-operative Ways Forward, but I was impressed by the report of Chris Saltmarsh (co-founder of Labour for a Green New Deal) telling...
East of England Co-op gives trees to the community for Queen’s Green Canopy
The retail society is gifting 250 red falstaff apple, concorde pear and sunburst cherry trees through the scheme East of England Co-op president Frank Moxon, and director Jane Nice launch the giveaway with tree planting at Wherstead Park in Suffolk East of England...
What next for social housing after the Rochdale Boroughwide tragedy?
The government is toughening up its regulation of social housing but critics say its policies have made the situation worse for renters The aftermath of the scandal at Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH) mutual poses questions for the rental housing sector, including...
Carbon offsetting co-op offers climate action to help the world’s poorest communities
'Co-operative Climate Action has been launched for people who want to offset their carbon emissions by helping those worst affected in a spirit of cooperation' Until relatively recently, these hills around Blantyre, Malawi, were covered in natural forest – and the new...
Levelling Up!
Homebaked Bakery – The power of communities to ‘level up’ for themselves The area around Anfield has a proud sense of community and at its heart was Mitchells Bakery, selling pies to locals and to football fans on match-days. However a lack of investment in Liverpool...
