Outdoor Learning

Aims:

• To encourage our young people to connect with, enjoy, and care for wild places
• To foster their interests to be creative and constructive and thus to develop (new) skills and interests
• To build up the confidence of students in themselves and in their ability to make things happen
• Tackle all four challenges of the John Muir Award (Discover a wild place; Explore it; Conserve it; and Share experiences)

We hope to achieve this by:

• Providing opportunities to appreciate wild spaces, such as wild camping overnight in a wood and going for a night walk
• Students helping to adjust our wild area so that it is as accessible for wildlife as possible and then they can have a chance of interacting with this
• Keeping our area litter free as an example to others and safe for wildlife
• Offering an “open house” when the students can show off what we have done/experienced by inviting others to come and see
• Giving students the opportunity to create something (for example we are currently building a shed and pond)

Courses currently offered:

Key stage 3 (Year 9) and Key Stage 4 (Option)

In classes 6 and 7 students go out for Forest School one day per week. In class 5 the students stop Forest School and then take Outdoor Learning. We use the John Muir Award as the frame work for this. This award gives recognition for the time and experience they have with connecting with wild spaces. When students are in key stage 4 they can opt to continue with this as one of their two chosen options. The award can either be Discovery (4 days); Explorer (8 days); or Conserver (20 days). Note that this has no GCSE equivalence.