On Tuesday 20 May 2025, special guests and pupils from the nine Extend Learning Academies Network (ELAN) schools gathered for the second Opening Worlds Curriculum Symposium at The Bistro, Weston College.

As a trust, we are committed to providing an extraordinary education for all pupils and in 2023, following much research and testing, we adopted the Opening Worlds (OW) curriculum for humanities: geography, history and religion written and designed by Christine Counsell and Steve Mastin. Our schools have been blown away by children’s knowledge, ability and willingness to write and talk about all of the topics within the curriculum and this event showcases this in an exciting and unique way. This year, we were extremely lucky to welcome both Christine and Steve to the symposium, along with OW pioneer James Page, Chief Executive of Haringey Education Partnership.

A symposium is described as “a formal occasion when specialists in a particular area meet to discuss a subject of interest to them”… and that’s exactly what it was!

Children and special guests enjoyed a lovely two-course dinner, prepared and served by the incredible catering and hospitality students from Weston College (providing them with an additional opportunity to support their own studies and show off what they could do). Over dinner, children entertained their table with amazing stories, facts and knowledge about some of their favourite subjects. The enthusiasm was boundless!

The second half of the evening saw an interactive and rather competitive quiz pitting schools and their wisdom against each other – no adult input allowed and absolutely not required. It was edge-of-the-seat action and very tightly fought with the overall winners Oldmixon Primary School taking the trophy for the second year running!

We’d like to offer huge thanks to Weston College for the venue, catering and hospitality. It could not have happened on such a scale without Tracey White, Jenna Ratcliff and their team who provided children with an incredible experience and great hospitality for all guests.

Huge thank you to our very own Kerri McArdle and Penny Boardman who decided that ELAN pupils deserved such an event and to the ExtendEd team, and ELAN school staff that made the magic happen.

We’d also really like to thank our special guests including Planning and Service Access Leader for North Somerset Council, Sally Varley; ELAN members and trustees Julian Baldwin, Claire Williams, Eloise Huxor, Malcom Davey and Steve John; Danny McGilloway, Principal of Broadoak Academy; Matt Randle, Principal of Winterstoke Hundred Academy; Reverend Jon Ormrod; friends of ELAN Justine Gregory and Sarah McGahern and our amazing ELAN staff and of course, all of the amazing children who are our reason for doing all that we do.