Milestones
There have been many significant milestones in Learning Through Action’s development over this past quarter century – for example:
The publication of 'Learning Through Action: The Handbook for a New Approach to Cross-Curricular Teaching', by Margaret Kay and Annette Cotterill (Publ. LDA 1989).
LTA received the 1993 Gulbenkian Award for Innovation in Museum Education for a programme of workshops at the Commonwealth Institute in London.
1993 saw the beginnings of our valued programme of workshops addressing social, health and behaviour issues, that now represents some 90% of our work, which, for over ten years, has benefited some 27-30,000 children and young people each year.
1995 was the year that an eight-year funding partnership with Barnardo's began.
In 1996 we employed our first intensively trained, 'gap-year' role-play presenters, now a vital element in the delivery of these workshops.
The same year, by invitation, we demonstrated our methods to an NSPCC National Commission of Inquiry into Child Abuse, which reported that our methodology was "an ideally discreet strategy empowering children to share their experiences".
Over recent years, an informal partnership with the Welsh Trust for Prevention of Abuse has resulted in our producing together a series of short, bilingual educational films for children.
In 2005 and 2006 an LTA team was commissioned by Grampian Police to deliver, in Aberdeenshire Schools, programmes of workshops addressing personal safety.
In 2006 Barnardo's commissioned a tour of our "You're OK, I'm OK!" workshop in Isle of Wight schools.
A workshop delivered by LTA at the Lebanese American University of Beirut (LAU) in 1997 led to a five-year programme of workshops for teachers and students in Lebanon at leading schools, and in the refugee camps, as well as at LAU. LTA training courses with us in England for Palestinian and Lebanese students followed. This development paralleled an earlier workshop at the University of the South Pacific which also resulted in a team of Fijians, Samoans and Solomon Islanders working with LTA in Berkshire and at the Commonwealth Institute in London.
In 2007 LTA's new workshop addressing knife-related incidents "On The Edge" is publicly launched at The Embrook School, Wokingham.