Tag Archives: Outdoor Learning

Realising the Ambition During Covid-19 at Cairngorm ELC⤴

from @ Education Scotland's Learning Blog

In the second in our series of practice sharing blogs during Covid-19 restrictions, Beth Rodgers from Cairngorm ELC provides us with fascinating insights into how she and her team prepared for the return of children:

Uncertain and unprecedented times call for creative measures and allows us the opportunity to be brave and take a leap of faith out of our comfort zone.

As Charles Darwin once said:

‘It is not the strongest of species that survive, nor the most intelligent. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.’

This has been the thought process for our team throughout the closure period. Key questions we asked ourselves were:

1. How can we adapt to the current situation and enhance the service we offer, whilst ensuring the safety of all of children by following national guidance?

2. What training opportunities can we access, albeit it in a different format than before to ensure that professional learning remains at the heart of our practice?

3. What spaces could be developed to enhance and maximise the experiences for our children?

4. How can we ensure that the wellbeing of our children, through nurturing and positive interactions remains at the heart of all we do?

5. How do we ensure that we take parents with us on our journey of change?

Think Spaces

Outdoors, outdoors and more outdoors. With the correct clothing and resources no weather is ‘bad’ weather. Embrace the elements… puddle jumping on wet days, dancing in the wind on windy days and staff embracing their inner child!

We were lucky enough to access some great outdoor training for staff prior to re-opening, which was supported by Education Scotland’s ‘Enhancing Professional Learning in STEM’ and this allowed staff to build confidence and prepare for a predominantly outdoor service.

We created a whole new outdoor space, utilising as many natural resources as possible, whilst really thinking about open ended materials which allow for lots of opportunities to be creative. Big piles of sticks, log, cones etc. have seen our children build dens, create their own role play areas, obstacle courses and many, many more. Spaces to relax and rest can be achieved outdoors – our Bell tent has been a revelation!

We have embraced our local environment, and walks and local exploration feature heavily in the daily life of Cairngorm Early Learning.

Think Interactions

Scary times and change are hard enough as an adult, but put yourself in the shoes of your children. Don’t underestimate the impact of cuddles and reassurance and that sense of belonging and safety that comes hand in hand. Think carefully about your groupings. Who do the children know well already? Are your key workers systems in place? Is there a safe space for children to feel relaxed and comforted? (Yes, even a tent outdoors can achieve this!)

Settling back in sessions have been a must for us and allowing children (and parents and carers) the time to take these at their own pace has been of paramount importance. Whether this means a child has one session or ten, you must look at each child individually and work from there.

We have updated our Care Plans to recognise the huge impact that COVID-19 has had on their lives and are utilising the Leuven Scale to track wellbeing over the weeks and months ahead, ensuring that we are responding to individual needs.

Think creatively about your communication with parents/carers. Are they still getting the information they need on a daily basis to make them feel secure in their child’s care? Never forget that this is a scary time for parents too and this needs the same level of thought and planning. We decided to buy in online software for parental communication and journals, ensuring that despite the reduction in face to face interactions with parents and a move away from a literal ‘open door’ policy, parents feel no less informed or part of their children’s experiences.

Using child friendly prompts about hygiene and the social distancing measures have also ensured that none of our messages have been threatening or scary. Being child friendly has been key.

Think Experiences

Little and often has been our mantra when it comes to resourcing and changing them regularly to support cleaning and hygiene practices.

Click to view slideshow.

A sand tray/tuff spot with a thin layer of sand and interesting mark making materials or small world toys can be just as exciting a tonne of the stuff. This has allowed us it to change it for each cohort with as little waste as possible. Water taken from a water butt with a tap for play, as and when required, and then disposed of has also helped ensure that hygiene measures are followed.

Ensure you have a comprehensive rota system for cleaning. We have found that a basin of sterilised water close by throughout the day allows us to pop resources into it immediately again use ready for a thorough clean at the end of the session. Clear guidance for staff regarding this has also been crucial.

Most important of all, be kind to each other.

Most important of all, be kind to each other. This experience has affected everyone; staff, children and families alike. Be patient with each other, support each other and remind yourselves that you have one of the most important and privileged roles out there. Be that source of comfort and love to your children and the rest will fall into place from there.

Opportunities for local fèis groups from Spòrs Gàidhlig,⤴

from @ Education Scotland's Learning Blog

Fèis-spòrs

Spòrs Gàidhlig, with support from Bòrd na Gàidhlig and Fèisean nan Gàidheal, are offering exciting activities to local fèis groups through Fèis-spòrs.  

Fèis-spòrs is a new initiative delivered in partnership with Fèisean nan Gàidheal. They will come to you during your normal fèis dates and deliver activities with professional instructors and equipment. Local Fèis participants can access exciting outdoor activities using Gaelic.

Spòrs Gàidhlig, are also offering an new Fèis-spòrs camp which will combine the best of music tuition and drama with an exciting programme of outdoor activities.  You can book online by visiting the website at www.spors.scot 

For more information, please call Spòrs Gàidhlig on  01463 234138 or email fios@spors.scot

DYW and Outdoor Learning⤴

from @ Education Scotland's Learning Blog

At Castlemilk Day Nursery DYW features as an integral part of the learning and teaching alongside literacy, numeracy and health & wellbeing. The Nursery employs a variety of approaches to allow their children to link the skills they are developing to the world of work, challenging gender stereotyping alongside.

Through outdoor learning children at Nursery have opportunity to explore and develop a wide variety of transferable skills across all curriculum areas. Using for example prompt cards and key questions children become aware of key professions and the skills required for these . This is reinforced through our joint up ventures with business and other local nurseries, primary and secondary schools. The Nursery is looking to promote skills for work, life and learning through role-playing , currently they have a focus on the veterinary sector. Children undertake a variety of roles and this helps them to understand the range of different skills that are necessary in the world of work.

Central to embedding DYW across all aspects of learning was the engagement of staff in professional dialogue and partnership working with employers. The Head Teacher and the staff have been working on resources that ensure that the Career Education Standards 3-18 is embedded within the curriculum.

Job Profile

A key priority of the nursery was to support children’s knowledge and understanding of the skills they were learning and relating these to the world of work The skills that the children explored are:

Responsibility/thinking

Teamwork/leadership

Creativity/self confidence

Physical wellbeing

Resilience

These where broken down into achievable “I can” statements for children and linked to the Career Education Standards 3-18. Staff had previously taken part in outdoor training within the local community woods and shared photographs of the learning with the children. The children were encouraged to share the skills that they could identify which included “helping”, “showing” and “talking” and relate these to their daily nursery routine and the wider world of work.. This was a shared learning approach which had positive implications for both staff and children’s learning. The nursery has taken the first steps to building on employee partnerships, developing the young workforce through joined up ventures and sustaining lifelong learning for all. The children really enjoy outdoors and the benefits which it brings. Having a woodland area within our nursery outdoor area we have been able to support and enhance the learning opportunities to support developing the young force through the children’s newly acquired transferable skills.

Staff and children have the opportunity to look at various experiences and outcomes through interdisciplinary learning. Skills for learning, life and work is an integral part of the planning and this ensures these are embedded within the curriculum experiences. Castlemilk has now made contact with wider industries such as house builders, catering agencies, generation programmes and engineering companies who are willing to support in sharing skills with our children

Castlemilk Day Nursery will continue to develop the young workforce approach within their daily practice and within their planning. They will work on joined up ventures with local nurseries, primaries, secondary schools and other education providers sharing skills and knowledge. This will support their children in developing their skills and open up many opportunities to embed DYW within the learning and teaching of the nursery.

Transferable skills and DYW

Karen Henderson, Head Teacher says: “The initial idea came from linking staff CPD training with our community “Wellie Wanders” group which our children take part in weekly. Staff were also able to link their experiences to the “Outdoor learning” documentation and “My world outdoors” resources which are embedded within Castlemilk Day Nursery”

“I liked climbing on the trees with Ella. I climbed really high. Then climbed down again” Josh, age 4yrs

“I learned to build a den with sticks, leaves and tarpaulin. I like playing in the mud. I like everything outside” Tommy, age 4yrs

Yokerburn Early Years⤴

from @ Education Scotland's Learning Blog

Extended day centre within Yoker area of north west Glasgow. Nursery caters for children from 0–5 years from a multitude of cultural, social, financial and learning backgrounds.

Click to view slideshow.

Raising awareness of job roles within local community by working with a range of different partners in the community is one of ur key priorities. This inspires the children and provides an early introduction into the world of work.  Our children have been working with a local care home to build up confidence and familiarity of the world of work. The children have experienced several different roles within the care home including: nursing, cooking, hair and beauty and table set-up . This is a fantastic opportunity for the children to gain a real insight into the world of work.

The project has grown and we have now had several engagements with the organisation:

Sustainability
Working with the care home to grow products. This project is in conjunction with another partner Dumbarton Environmental Trust. The project is helping our young people to improve their understanding of science but also introducing a wide range of different career options.

Remembrance Day
We joined the care home residents on Remembrance Day and the young people made their own poppies to commemorate the occasion. This was another opportunity for the residents to discuss their own lives with our children.

We have other experiences available to our children:

Parental Employability Sessions
We have encouraged our parents to become involved in our employability events and we have had several successful parental QA sessions. This allows the children to experience these skills from some familiar faces.

Fruit Stall
This project has allowed our childen to learn employability skills in a real-life context. The children are involved in all aspects of the enterprise activity

Health and hygiene
Money handling
Stock control

They also produce a survey on what products are selling the best and plan their purchases accordingly.

Community Police Visit
The children had a visit from the community police, this was another opportunity to show a positive role model for them. They had a QA session and had the opportunity to ask a wide range of diverse questions.

“The effective incorporation of simple counting, matching, comparison tasks into the conversation encouraged early numeracy skills and the reciprocal question and answers and new vocabulary in context developed early literacy skills for our children in a real and meaningful way. Our childen have been extremely engaged during visits to Quayside with older residents and we have recognised that often adults can underestimate children’s abilities in terms of empathy and awareness. We have had statements from Quayside about increased motivation, interest and engagement by some residents and there really is an observable connection between the regular visitors.Promoting the world of work is allowing our children to access early knowledge of the wide range of different career pathways.” Head Teacher

We are building on our local partners and will continue to actively promote the positive impact of early introduction to the world of work.

Next Steps
Working with local partners
Continuing our links with local community and strengthening joint appreciation of the people and families in our area.

“We have noticed a surge of energy and increase in physical activity for some of our residents when they know the children will be visiting” Anne from Quayside

Grants to support learning on the First World War⤴

from @ Education Scotland's Learning Blog

Do your plans for the curriculum include developing children and young people’s knowledge, skills and understanding of the First World War? Do you intend to do some intergenerational work to promote children and young people’s Gaelic language skills?  Has your tracking of children and young people’s skills in technology shown a gap for which an opportunity to create a film would be useful?

A grant of £250 is available as part of the Scottish Government’s five-year World War 1 Commemorative Programme to mark the centenary of the First World War. It aims to help children and young people develop their understanding of the causes of the First World War and impact on people’s lives.

More information is available at:

https://www.historicenvironment.scot/learn/schools/wwi-project-grants?dm_t=0,0,0,0,0

 

Social Bite calls for Scotland’s young people to join movement against homelessness with first ever ‘Wee Sleep Out’ initiative⤴

from @ Education Scotland's Learning Blog

Social Bite has  launched the Wee Sleep Out; a national awareness raising and fundraising campaign to get the young people of Scotland involved in the charity’s mission to end homelessness.
Wee Sleep Out is calling on all teachers, youth leaders, parents and guardians to challenge young people between 8 and 16 years old to get out of their beds, and their comfort zones by organising their very own Wee Sleep Outs on 9 November, as part of Scotland’s Year of Young People 2018.
From back gardens to school grounds, living room floors to community halls, each Wee Sleep Out is putting young people in the driving seat and giving them the opportunity to showcase their skills and talents by leading on the development and delivery of their own sleep outs and being enterprising in their apporaches to  gathering support and raising funds. 

There will be no sign-up fee, and no minimum fundraising target to make this initiative accessible to all – Social Bite would of course be delighted if young people fundraise as much as they can to contribute to their nationwide movement to end homelessness.
Money raised from the Wee Sleep Out events will go towards Social Bite’s wider Sleep in the Park total, which includes supporting Social Bite’s major Housing First initiative, which is expected to take 800 rough sleepers off the streets by 2020.
A number of young people who organise their own Wee Sleep Outs will also have the opportunity to play a starring role across Sleep in the Park events on 8 December, sharing their personal experiences of delivering their own Wee Sleep Out to participants.
Alice Thomson, co-founder of Social Bite and organiser of the Wee Sleep Out, said: “The success of Sleep in the Park last year was overwhelming. To bring 8,000 people together and raise £4 million in the process was incredible, and this year we want the young people of Scotland to join us.
“There’s been a real appetite from the young people of Scotland looking to get involved, and a number of them got in touch after Sleep in the Park, offering their support. We even had Cody McManus, aged 9, brave the Beast from the East and sleep out in an Igloo in his back garden – raising £1,000 for the cause.
“We’re proud to launch the Wee Sleep Out during Scotland’s Year of Young People and give the young people of Scotland a voice. We want people of all ages to get involved with Social Bite’s mission to eradicate homelessness, and we’re inviting young people across the country to get creative and take the lead by organising their own Wee Sleep Out this year.”
Olivia Ferguson, a 16-year-old student at Kelso High School, took part in Sleep in the Park last year and contacted Alice after the event, keen to do something involving other young people. She said: “This a great opportunity for young people to come together to help end homelessness.

“Last year my family and I took part in the Sleep in the Park, which was a very humbling experience. I didn’t want my support to end there, so I got in touch with Alice and suggested an event in the Borders, and I can wait to organise a Wee Sleep Out.”

Paul Bush OBE, VisitScotland’s Director of Events, said:
“The Year of Young People 2018 provides us with a wonderful opportunity to celebrate, showcase and most importantly empower young people to make a difference.”
“We are delighted to be supporting Social Bite’s Wee Sleep Out as part of Scotland’s current themed year. It provides a fantastic opportunity for young people across Scotland to lead the way in the delivery and development of events in their communities and at home to raise awareness of an important issue. 2018 is the time to give young people the power to create change and celebrate their spirit of creativity and innovation – we can’t wait to hear all the ways in which they plan to take part in the Wee Sleep Out.”
The Wee Sleep Out is now open for registration at www.weesleepout.co.uk
Join the conversation #WeeSleepOut #YOYP2018

Skills development through outdoor education: Fully funded CPD opportunity⤴

from @ Education Scotland's Learning Blog

The Outward Bound trust (Loch Eil) is offering a free CPD opportunity to for teachers /practitioners and employers to explore partnership working around skills development and employability .  

During a 2 day seminar the team at Loch Eil will demonstrate how the outdoor context can develop core skills relevant in supporting young people to realise their  future aspirations and career pathway.   The seminar will make reference to skills development in relation to the Career Education Standard, attainment and wider achievement. 

More information about the seminar and how to sign up here.

Contact:

Freda Fallon,

EDUCATION PARTNERSHIPS – SCOTLAND

The Outward Bound Trust

Loch Eil Centre, Achdalieu

Fort William, PH33 7NN

T 07919 887716

W outwardbound.org.uk

Also:  Access the Outward Bound interesting practice exemplar here.

LANTRA 2017 – Career Workshops and Skills Events⤴

from @ Education Scotland's Learning Blog

The latest event in a series of  workshops and events on career pathways and skills development in the land-base, aquaculture and environmental industries, will take place on Thursday, 14 December, Westerwood Hotel, Cumbernauld (10am – 3pm). (contact: 01738 310164 or Scotland@lantra.co.uk)

Two recent LANYRA career workshops run for SDS career staff, teachers, DYW regional groups etc. were held in Perth & Lanark. Here are the links to the presentations from industry speakers :

LANTRA’s website offers plenty of information on  exciting and rewarding jobs in this industry sector, especially for Modern Apprentices. Find out more by signing up for our quarterly newsletter or contacting us LANTRA directly.

And:  The new rural skills video has just been published and can be viewed on  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omCE4wlikqo

Making Scotland a STEM Nation⤴

from @ Education Scotland's Learning Blog

STEM Education and Training Strategy for Scotland has now been published

A STEM (Sciences Technologies, Engineering and Mathematics) Education and Training Strategy was launched in the Scottish Parliament last week by Ms Shirley-Anne Somerville, Minister for Further Education, Higher Education and Science. The Strategy, together with a STEM Evidence Base Report, is now available to download from: http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2017/10/1386/downloads

A central focus on the strategy is to enable everyone to develop STEM skills for learning, for life and for work. It provides a new emphasis on career pathways within STEM sectors and to grow successful  partnerships between schools and employers through the Developing the Young Workforce Programme.  The strategy also includes a commitment to expand Foundation, Modern and Graduate Apprenticeship Programmes to enable many to pursue jobs and careers in STEM through these pathways. This strong focus on skills and careers will further enhance national efforts to Develop the Young Workforce (DYW) and embed employment and career management skills in the curriculum through the Career Education Standard.

A wide variety and resources including exemplars around DYW and STEM can be accessed on the National Improvement Hub here.

 

Sleep in the Park: 1000 Free School Tickets!⤴

from @ Education Scotland's Learning Blog

This year Social Bite are bringing together 9,000 people in Princes Street Gardens, on the 9th of December, for the world’s largest ever Sleep-Out to try and end homelessness in Scotland for good. Participants will be joined by some of the world’s biggest artists to sleep in the cold for one night.
We have invited some amazing musicians to “busk” stripped back acoustics sets including Liam Gallagher, Deacon Blue, Amy Macdonald and Frightened Rabbit. We also have Rob Brydon hosting the event, Sir Bob Geldof sleeping out and John Cleese has agreed to come and read a bedtime story!

The website is: https://www.sleepinthepark.co.uk/
You can see a little video about the event here:

 Sleep In The Park Launch Video.mp4

Please note:  This allocation is for young people 16 and over and they must be accompanied by an adult.

Opportunity for Your School

Ordinarily, in order to participate in the event people have to pay an initial donation of £50 and commit to raise at least £50 more. However, we have had a wealthy individual donate £50,000 to fund the participation of 1,000 School kids (aged 16 and over).

Therefore I am writing to see if you would like to take an allocation of free tickets for children over 16 at your school. The group would need to commit to raising a minimum of £50 or more per person in order to take part, but would not have to pay any initial £50 registration fee as this has been entirely funded. They would also have to be accompanied to the event by a teacher(s).

We are giving the school ticket allocations out on a first come first served basis and we expect the demand to be high and the 1,000 available to be taken quickly. Therefore could you let me know if you would like an allocation of tickets? If so please let me know the number of tickets you would like for your school?

Josh Littlejohn MBE

Social Bite

Co-Founder

t: 0131 220 8206