Cathedral’s Investigation & Innovation Hub provides an additional learning space for pupils, beyond their classroom and learning street, to engage and collaborate in investigation, enquiry, problem solving and open-ended projects.

The World Economic Forum stated that by 2025, the top five skills employers will be looking for include innovation, complex problem solving, critical thinking, creativity and originality. Cathedral’s Investigation & Innovation Hub aims to develop these skills in our young learners and prepare them for life and employment in a fast-changing world.

Let’s take a typical day working for LEGO as an example:

• Workspace set-up: no assigned desks—employees choose spaces based on their tasks and mood, thanks to LEGO’s flexible office model.
• Team collaboration: brainstorming with colleagues, reviewing prototypes and evaluating designs.
• Hands-on building: using bricks to test concepts, refine models, and prepare for product launches.
• Feedback & review: presenting ideas to others for feedback.

There will be similar working practices in any innovative, forward-thinking company including Apple, Audi or even M&S Food.

At the heart of Cathedral’s Active8 approach is an an appropriate balance of adult-led, adult-initiated and learner-led learning. Sitting alongside high-quality direct teaching (whether whole-class or in smaller groups) are several key features which, in many ways, resemble working for LEGO:

• Flexible timetabling rather than fixed subject blocks;
• Learners take responsibility for their own learning and manage their own time;
• Learners have freedom to choose activities from a range of options;
• There is an emphasis on creativity and exploration, and activities often include collaborative, hands-on learning and inquiry-based projects;
• Teachers are not simply instructors but also facilitators who guide learners rather than direct each and every activity.

There is a specific emphasis within Cathedral’s Investigation & Innovation Hub on developing the four creativity skills:

CURIOSITY… find out something new

• Inquire
• Observe
• Research

OPEN-MINDEDNESS… try something in a different way

• Listen
• Think differently
• Explore

IMAGINATION… try out new ideas

• Have ideas
• Select from the best
• Invent

PROBLEM SOLVING… think differently and don’t give up

• Identify
• Think differently
• Present solutions

To support Cathedral learners to effectively and efficiently collaborate in investigations and open-ended projects, they regularly take on specific team roles:

• Team Captain
• Supplies Manager
• Chief Architect
• Master Builder
• Testing Co-ordinator

Of course, everything described above isn’t just confined to the Investigation and Innovation Hub. Cathedral learners take and apply all of these approaches and skills back in their classrooms, learning streets and beyond.