Digital Learning

Making the Most of Non-Structured Time

Form time and assemblies can be great opportunities to engage interest in the world, encourage empathy and promote wellbeing as young people explore who and how they want to be. A new digital platform is providing creative solutions to maximise the potential of non-structured classroom time. This Q&A with founder Elysia Willis outlines the highlights of the program.

Luminous is a new platform that delivers weekly digital resources for tutor times and assemblies that cover areas of the curriculum that may be difficult to engage with at other times. It is reducing the burden for form teachers, providing much-needed structure to tutor times or class-based assemblies.

The platform is divided into the sections ‘Ideas’, ‘People’ and ‘Wonder’—themes with the potential to spark curiosity, empathy and discussion. There is also a dedicated wellbeing section and religious page for faith schools.

We met up with Elysia Willis, Creative Director and founder of the platform to learn more about how it is increasing the impact of form time and assemblies.

What exactly is Luminous?

Luminous is a subscription resource that comes out weekly. Each edition shares three videos which relate to three sections: ‘Ideas’, People’ and ‘Wonder’. Some examples include Growing Lollipops (Ideas), Tackling PTSD Through Art (People) and How Tennis Rackets Got their Shape (Wonder). Prompt questions accompany the clips so that each video’s themes can be discussed and debated.

As we all engage with video in such an immediate way, it’s a highly effective medium for explaining an idea, telling a story and opening pupils’ minds.

As a former art teacher, I have always been fascinated by creative communication and how to relay information in the most engaging way. During my years in the classroom, I found that pupils were most captivated by lessons that used mixed media (words, images, music and videos) rather than text-filled screens or whiteboards, so I thought it was important to incorporate that as the basis for the platform.

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