360 Skills For Life CIC

It’s 6 months today since the SafeWise charity entered voluntary liquidation as a result of lost income from school visits during the pandemic, an inflexible and costly private sector lease, and lack of emergency funding for charities not providing services directly related to Covid19. We left behind not only our amazing #Bournemouth safety village with its full size street crossings, house, Co-op store, beach and railway track, but also a legacy of 22 years of fabulous educational experiences for young people, a strong community of supportive volunteers, and a fabulous staff team, all of whom lost their jobs.

A sad ending (I mean pause) but with much to be grateful for. Excitingly, the vision of our founders is being renewed and repurposed by 360 Skills For Life CIC, in what we think is a better, post pandemic format of online virtual reality, in school provision, and support for practical outdoor learning. Phase 1 funding is now secured from NHS England and the wonderful Talbot Trust, and we are starting to scope out the virtual learning village and programmes of study. We’ll be testing in schools this Autumn and launching in January 2022.

It really is true that every #crisis is also an #opportunity. And our young people need support now more than ever to release their huge potential.

We’re creating a virtual reality learning village with our partners at Volume, supported by NHS England and evaluated by ImpactEd, to support primary and secondary teachers deliver #SkillsForLife. We are now developing our first phase for full launch in January 2022, which covers #safeguarding themes to support the transition from #KeyStage2 into #KeyStage3.

We’re looking for both primary and secondary teachers/school leaders to advise and feedback on proposed content and delivery style.

We recognise the huge pressure teaching colleagues are under right now, so have planned two short online sessions. Can you join us on MS Teams on Tuesday 15th June, or Thursday 1st July, both from 4pm to 4.30pm?

If you are passionate about the need for a real life education for all our young people and would like to be involved in this innovative national project, contact us here and we can send you a Teams invite.

We’re delighted to publish our e-brochure today. Please download, digest and distribute to contacts whom you think might be interested in how partnering with 360 could help them meet their own organisational objectives.

We’re enjoying attending the Annual Trespass Prevention Virtual Conference and Tradefair 2021 today, organised by RSSB with Network Rail and British Transport Police. Lots of innovation going on to reduce trespass and the damage to lives of railway employees as well as the trespasser. Listening to interesting perspectives from Ann Mills, head of safety at RSSB, BTP Chief Constable Adrian Hanstock QPM discussing virtual reality learning, and Rupert Lown from Network Rail.

360 Skills For Life is developing a unique cross-curricular and skills-based approach in partnership with other agencies and covering a wider range of safety topics that complements trespass-specific interventions, using VR, but as part of a much wider in-school and outdoor learning programme.