Million Minds: An Education Manifesto for Future Generations

A quest to ensure every pupil has 500 hours’ real-world problem solving to build skills, confidence & direction for a world of change

Humanity must transform its relationship between the economy’s ability to supply us with the essentials and luxuries of life, and the impact that has on the natural resources and environmental systems that make life possible.

In the next dozen years, the entire world’s carbon emissions need to drop by 40%, and reduce to zero by the time that today’s 18-year students have reached their 50th birthday if we are to stay within a 1.5c rise in average global temperatures. We also need to reverse biodiversity loss, create a circular economy and fix health. Most pupils will leave school unprepared for the role they must play in inspiring and delivering change for a smarter future. It doesn’t have to be that way; Million Minds offers one way how to make the shift that’s needed.

Million Minds is an ambitious project linking teachers in progressive schools around the world to share resources and develop leaders with the confidence and skills to shape a better future. This Manifesto is a commitment to action by school leaders know that dramatic increases in speed and scale of change are needed to give pupils the skills and confidence to inspire others and design a resilient future. Million Minds teachers are catalysing transformational change in education and learning at nation-scale to deliver a thriving future for all species for all time.

Wales has shaped the world’s best sustainability legislation through the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act; a posse of ambitious change catalysts are building projects that will use Wales as a prototype lab for country-scale change in health, education and wellbeing. Welsh teachers and educators have a key role in making that happen.

“In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.” Eric Hoffer, philosopher

The Million Minds Commitment

1. As leaders passionate about education, we know what needs to be done. We are ready and prepared to act. We know enough about change to help it thrive through bold ideas, experimentation and celebration of learning and success.
2. We school supports the Million Minds project, a network of ambitious and progressive schools collaborating to connect pupils’ learning to the world they’re going to be living, and put this focus on the future at the heart of our education and imagination.
3. Progressive businesses, government and the third sector are sharing insights, resources and challenges to catalyse country-scale education shift. Through our work as educators, we are their bridge to future generations. We do this because we can, and because leading change is the best guarantee for getting the future we want.
4. We will nurture ambitious, capable and enterprising learners, ready to play a full part in life and work who are ethical, informed, healthy and confident how to lead fulfilling lives as valued members of society. We commit to leading the changes that will make this possible.
5. The innovation, creativity needed to address climate change, ecosystem health and biodiversity, plastic pollution and resource challenges will shape the way we prepare pupils and ourselves as leaders for a different economy.

The Million Minds Journey

As educators committed to preparing learners for leadership in a changing world, we commit to:

1. Ensure that pupils understand the scale of risks and opportunities linked to changes ahead.
2. Embed 500 hours of impact-based project learning into the curriculum and support pupils in tackling authentic challenges from their school, their community and from progressive businesses.
3. Grow pupil’s ‘passport to adventure’ on a foundation of core life skills that help them explore wellbeing, nature and opportunity for free, for ever.
4. Re-design residential and adventure learning so that children fall in love with nature and build problem solving skills for life.
5. Engage business, government and third sector partners to develop the best possible resources and tools to build understanding and capacity for change.
6. Share our learning openly and freely.

Project champions:

Andy Middleton, Chief Exploration Officer, TYF @gringreen

Ross Hall, Director of Education, Ashoka ross hall

Janet Hayward, Cadoxton Primary School @JanneHayward

Dr Alec Clark, Powys County Council @AlecPBS

Finola Wilson & Jane Miller, Impact Wales @ImpactWales

Nurtured by TYF Adventure, A Certified B Corporation

www.tyf.com TYF Adventure