Learning and Creativity this Autumn

During half term we have been getting outdoors and enjoying the autumn colours and bright sunshine. The green leaves are turning and dropping off the trees to rest and make way for new growth in the Spring. Autumn is a time for preparing for change, and getting ready for winter. 

What can you do this autumn to make the most of the out doors and the beautiful autumn colours? We collected different leaves and made an autumnal bouquet; we have been inspired to try some painting in these colours and we have been trying out composing some poetry too. One benefit of the shorter days is seeing the sunrise and sunset colours. But not everyone has short days and distinct seasons.


Talking with our colleagues in The Gambia and Sierra Leone this morning we were comparing the weather. This is something we are programmed to do here in the UK for some reason. Did you know that in The Gambia and Sierra Leone there are only 2 seasons dry and rainy season? Temperatures there this week were 42 degrees, we would love some of that heat over here in the UK right now but the trade-off for nearly year round sunshine is that they have heavy rains from July to October and due to Climate Change much like us they are experiencing strange weather at all times of the year.


Have you noticed this year that there have been huge crops of acorns? Well across the UK Oak trees are all producing an extraordinarily large crop of acorns. This is actually a natural phenomena, every few years some species of trees and shrubs produce a bumper crop to ensure that there is far more seed than can ever be eaten by predators, to ensure that there will be plenty to sprout and grow. This is called a ‘Mast Year’ as the collective term for fruits and nuts is ‘mast’. Find out more about this phenomena on the Woodland Trust website (https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/blog/2020/10/what-is-a-mast-year/). So, this year is a Mast Year for Oak, and there has been a lot of rosehips too.

We have been enjoying learning ourselves whilst hosting our Life Long Learning Series as well as welcoming lots of new people who have discovered the Steve Sinnott Foundation for the first time. We have discovered the possibilities of what can be done in an online conference, and tested out creative workshops, working together and how Zoom can be used to enhance learning for all and connecting with people all over the world. Which makes us feel strongly about the Global Digital Divide and what we can do about it.


We’d like to thank everyone who has taken part so far and share the two autumn poems we created in Sovel’s Quiet Mind Poetry webinar.

Autumn Seeds


Acorns and conkers

The currency of our future

This is not just a seed

It is a heart inside a hand

It is a pearl within a shell

It is a dream above the clouds


Seeds create comforting feelings in my hands

From the decomposition and decay of Autumn

New lives will be generated

And mighty trees will grow.


Seeds of the autumn

Hand in hand

The acorn and the conker.

Outdoors


Shared joy to be outdoors,

So fresh, summer flowers gone,

Flush of pink in cheeks.

 

Pink and red stripes against green,

Swelling and growing behind lost flowers,

Small dark seeds growing inside.

 

Anticipating the conker tree,

Crunchy flesh, waiting to be eaten,

Shiny conkers, waiting to be chosen.

 

Watching the pup smile,

Happy to walking too and,

Sharing joys outdoors.


Please share this post with anyone who would find it interesting, and leave a comment below to let us know what you have been doing this Autumn.


Thankyou for sharing the learning!

The Steve Sinnott Foundation • October 29, 2020

36 Bicycles. Countless Futures in The Gambia.

By Ann Beatty • May 20, 2026
How a simple act of practical solidarity is transforming the journey to school in The Gambia’s Central River Region North Policies have been written. Schools have been built. Yet for many children in The Gambia’s Central River Region North, access to education is still measured in kilometres, not opportunity. 

Education for Hope in Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous Times

By Laura Griffin • May 13, 2026
‘In a single hour vast tracts of shaded woodland became a jumble of torn trees and upturned soil, exposed to the glare of the summer sun. Such land-clearing events are rare, but forests exhibit remarkable resilience in the face of disaster. I’m told that the Chinese character for ‘catastrophe’ is the same as that which represents the word ‘opportunity’. And, the blowdown, while catastrophic, presented opportunities for many species.’ (Wall Kimmerer, 2003: 89). In the context of a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world (Stein, 2021) what kinds of education for hope might support children’s and young people’s critical engagement in local and global issues? In the spirit of exploring the possibilities of hope further, this short article focuses on the area of global citizenship and sustainabilityrelated education. It will briefly open by sharing commonalities across pedagogical approaches that take up the concept and act of hope more critically, and close by offering reflective questions for educators, with suggestions for further reading. Perhaps it is a kind of hope that is grounded in the present, in future reimagining(s), in ethical solidarity, and an acknowledgement of our deep entanglement with the living metabolism of planet earth 1 our singular home (UNESCO, 2021); a hope that engages with complex root causes and lived realities of multiple overlapping crises in critically reflexive and contextually relevant ways. As McCloskey notes, ‘Hope can fire our collective imagination and critical consciousness as a mainspring to activism and intervention in the world.’ (2025: 3). Commonalities across critical pedagogical approaches to hope include: Acknowledging the context of a ‘seamless single story of progress, development and human evolution’ (Andreotti, V.D.O., 2021b Relating to social and ecological justice and the wellbeing of people and planet Using participatory, action-orientated and inquiry-based learning processes Exploring diverse worldviews and perspectives Practising grounding in the present with opening up possibilities for change (relational, embodied, response-able 2 ) Experiencing ‘struggle’ in different forms (dialogical, selfreflexive, open-ended) Engaging individual and collective agency, action and activism Looking for lifelong and life-wide learning and unlearning. 1 See ‘Co-sensing with Radical Tenderness’, in Machado de Oliveira Andreotti. 2021a 2 See ‘Crossing Borders’ in 2 Depth Education “Depth Education and the Possibility of GCE Otherwise, 2021b. Source: Andreotti, V. 2021a & 2021b., Atif, A. (2025)., Bourn, D. 2021., Bryan. A. and Mochizuki,Y., 2024., Giroux, H.A. 2025., Meade, E. 2025. Whilst engaging in the concept and act of hope more critically reflect upon: What kinds of education for hope might you explore further and why? How might you provide generative spaces for engaging in diverse worldviews and perspectives? In what ways can you facilitate individual and collective agency? How might you support learners’ practice grounding in the present in order to relate differently? In what ways can you support learners in navigating complex root causes and lived realities of local and global issues? As Chief Ninawa Hini Kui affirms, ‘The future depends much less on the images we project ahead than on our capacity to repair relations and build relationships differently in the present.’ (Andreotti et al, 2023: 73. An invitation for further reading: Transformative Learning for a Sustainable Future . d’Abreu, C., Belgeonne, C., Bourn, D. and Hatley, J. (2025) ‘Transformative Learning for a Sustainable Future’. DERC Research Paper 24. London: UCL Institute of Education. Hospicing Modernity: facing humanity’s wrongs and the implications for social activism. Machado de Oliveira Andreotti, V. (2021a) ‘Hospicing Modernity: facing humanity’s wrongs and the implications for social activism’ , London: Penguin Random House. Development Education and Hope . McCloskey, S. (2025). (ed) ‘Development Education and Hope’. ‘Policy and Practice: A Development Education Review’ , Vol. 41, Autumn. Centre for Global Education, Belfast. Link to and download the full reference list here

I heard it said today by a friend that “You learn a language best when you use it to speak and write about things that are important to you. ”

By Susan Piper • May 6, 2026
This summed up to me about why I volunteer for the Hands Up Project. HUP is a charity trust which, through its network of volunteers, connects children around the world with young people in Palestine. By means of online interaction, drama and storytelling activities, it enables the use of creativity and selfexpression to promote mutual understanding, personal growth, and the development of English language skills. I joined HUP in 2020 during COVID. After going to Palestine in 2017, I wanted to get more involved in working with Palestinian children in schools. HUP gave me the opportunity to link up with schools in the West Bank and Gaza. Every week I’d tell them stories from all over the world, then we’d discuss it, play games and I’d get them to retell it. Sometimes we would work from their coursebook English for Palestine’ in mutual team teaching sessions with their teacher. The simple act of telling a story became much more than entertainment. It became connection, healing, and a bridge to the world beyond their immediate reality to help them improve their language skills, and to give them a platform to speak about their lives in a language that connects them to people everywhere. I loved it, every week, seeing their smiling faces on the screen and building long lasting friendships with their teachers. I even went to Gaza in 2023 and met some of the kids I’d only seen on Zoom. It was a beautiful experience and something I will never forget. As hostilities escalated, I lost contact with everyone. I thought about where the kids were and what had happened to them. As I watched schools being bombed, universities flattened, and people killed in their thousands, I thought about where the kids I’d met were and what was happening to them. I kept in contact with many of the teachers I knew and heard daily news of displacement, destruction, hunger and bombing. Recently, I’ve started to link up again with children in Gaza, and it feels wonderful to be back helping them learn after being denied an education for over two years. Connecting with children in Palestine is more than just words. When a child in Palestine confidently tells their story to someone on the other side of the world, bridges are built, empathy grows, and the world gains a fuller picture of childhood in contexts far from peace and privilege. My work with these children is rooted in the belief that education and voice are inseparable. Through storytelling and English language learning, I witness children not just learning new vocabulary, but reclaiming their narratives, believing in their potential, and finding human connection in a world they perceive has abandoned them. And more than anything, this work reminds us all that children — everywhere — deserve to learn, to speak, and to be heard. Links to HUP information, books and resources: The Hands Up Project BY SUSAN PIPER Susan Piper is currently an ESOL teacher in Oldham, Greater Manchester and has worked in education for over 30 years. She is also a volunteer for the Hands Up Project and is the International Solidarity Officer and President of her NEU district. She believes in quality education for all and aims to make her lessons creative and inclusive so that effective language learning can take place.