What do you think of when you hear the term 'learner agency?' You might envisage students having some "voice" and "choice" around what they learn, or where they sit in class. And while that's a nice start, learner agency is more than allowing students some choice in what they learn. It's about involving them in every step of the journey. Imagine a school with... 🙌🏼 Student- run electives. 🙌🏼 Seventy + student led businesses to carry out the school's day to day operations. 🙌🏼 Timetables that are created and carried out by a student design team. 🙌🏼 A school board that includes young learners. 🙌🏼 100+ Individualised Learning Plans that students co-design. That's Templestowe College, or more affectionately known as "Take Control" College in Australia. It's one of Hundred.org's top 100 most innovative schools in the world. And Peter Hutton was the mastermind at its helm. I was lucky enough to sit down with Peter to learn more about how he built this kind of learner agency; and how we as learner-centered champions can heed the lessons to build more student agency in our classrooms and schools.

Connect with Peter: LinkedIn, Twitter

Join Future Schools: https://futureschools.education/

Take the 12 Shifts for Learner-Centered Classrooms Scorecard: www.transformschool.com/12shiftsmastermind

Peter's Bio: Peter is a maverick, a free radical, a challenger of the status quo. His strength is in transformational insight and supporting educational leaders to build innovative and adaptive cultures. As a person with dyslexia, Peter sees the world differently. Co-founding the Future Schools Alliance in 2018, Peter now works with a community of 100 member schools to significantly improve the lives of young people by transforming the education system to promote purpose-filled empowered learning and equip them for times of exponential change. Peter was the former Principal of Templestowe College which has been recognised by Finland's HundrED organisationas one of the most innovative schools in the world.

Abby Newsham

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