ABSTRACT
A learning city stimulates the community and whole families to learn by running festivals, fairs and other fun events which promote the habit of learning. The need for communities to celebrate learning and the achievement of learners is an important part of the work of the learning city. One of the greatest celebrations of learning at any level would be for learning to be recognized as a great achievement in itself. Local well-publicised ‘learning days’, coinciding with the start of a new school, adult education and vocational training terms, and incorporating parades, concerts and plays, are another way of injecting fun. In Calderdale, classes in ‘Learning for children and adults together’ gathered 500 parents and their children. Learning cities are the natural catalysts for the celebration of learning. Ideas from the learning festival in Sapporo to the use of schools and other institutions as community centres for family learning abound.
