Outdoor Learning in the the Outer Hebrides
The work of the Outdoor Learning Team in the Outer Hebrides; developing Learning for Sustainability and helping soften the classroom walls
Tim heard about the new mud kitchen and music wall Uig Sgoil Araich have had built for them. Made from pallets and other scavenged materials it gives the young people a great new place to experiment and take part in imaginative play. They were built by Phill who lives in Uig and look fantastic.
Tim is now looking forwards to going over to play.
If you have any great things you would like to share please contact either Tim or Isi.
Scottish Government as part of its educational recovery strategy, and as recognition of the benefits of Outdoor Learning, they have funded the development of two online training courses. The Scottish Advisory Panel for Outdoor Education (SAPOE) worked with Education Officers from Education Scotland to develop the Teaching Learning Outdoors and Supporting Learning Outdoors Courses for teaching staff and support staff.
Teaching Learning Outdoors
The Teaching Learning Outdoors (TLO) course supports teachers to deliver curriculum learning in an outdoor context. During the course there is opportunity to develop an understanding of the benefits of learning outdoors, key resources and policy, and how to access them to enable delivery of high-quality outdoor learning. The course also covers pedagogy and practical solutions for delivering learning outdoors, as well as creating an action plan for applying the new knowledge gained.
The TLO module is available on the Education Scotland Professional Learning and Leadership Platform site: Log In | Education Scotland PLL
To 23 March 2021 nationally 389 modules were in progress and 490 modules completed.
Supporting Learning Outdoors
The Supporting Learning Outdoors course is for anyone who has a role in supporting the delivery of curricular based outdoor learning. Aimed at classroom assistants, volunteers, instructors, third sector and private organisations, or anyone who wants to work in partnerships with schools to deliver meaningful outdoor learning experiences. The course will help participants to gain an understanding of the Curriculum for Excellence, and the framework for delivering this to pupils, as well as providing resources and ideas to assist good partnership working.
To 23 March 2021 nationally 414 courses were in progress and 279 courses completed.
The SLO course is available on the SAPOE web site: Supporting Learning Outdoors.
Further Training and Help
Here is a short video which was made for the Teaching Learning Outdoor webinars showing what Outdoor Learning can be:
SAPOE What is Outdoor Learning – YouTube
If you need more help, advice or training to develop outdoor learning in your school or class Tim and Isi can help
The Scottish Advisory Panel for Outdoor Education have tried to collate some resources into one place to help you with Outdoor Learning.
Hopefully you will find some useful ideas and fun things to do on the different pages.
Tim delivered a train the trainer course to allow practitioners to be trainers for the Forest and Outdoor Kindergarten SCQF level 7, the plan is to embed this training throughout the authority. As in the last post on this training it is based round exploring the three areas of People, Place and Pedagogy; the Who, Where and Why of good practice.
The training was delivered at the Water Wheel Building in the Castle Grounds and the surrounding area and although it was chilly it was a great space to play in.
We started by discussing fun important memories from growing up, and although we were in an outdoor setting most of people memories had an outdoor element to them.
Even with the theoretical content which was needed we tried to make the course as practical as possible to illustrate how the learning through playing can be taken outside.
The aim is for the participants to grow their confidence to take the principles into their nursery setting and encourage others to spend more time outdoors with the young people.
Since Tim has come back from doing the Forest Kindergarten Training he has been working with the Early Years team to help them develop their skills.
He ran a pilot course with the combined nursery staff in Tong school and will be running a trainer course in November 2019.
Although the course is called forest it is not just aimed at forests, the training is aimed at helping early years practitioners to take the young people they work with outside more regularly.
The model used is to consider the Place, the People and the Pedagogy;
Considering the Place involves the suitability and the practical steps needed to manage the young people in the place.
The People thinks about who is involved; the young people, the staff, the carers/parents managing their needs and expectations.
Pedagogy is the how what and why we take young people outdoors
A possible visual model:
The objective it to show practitioners the connectivity and to challenge them to consider the elements in their own practice.
This is partly done inside through conversation, which because of time constraints is done inside.
The final session on pedagogy was done outside in the fantastic garden area of the school. The practitioners were given opportunity to play. This, apart from being great fun in the rain, highlighted for this group the importance of child lead learning and how few resources they needed as the environment provides them. They saw imaginative play, social skills development, gross motor skills, fine motor skills and peer learning happen within their own group and considered how they could use this in their own practice.
Sgoil Araich Uig have been developing the outdoor area at the back of the school as a place they can go and learn through outdoor play. As part of this Tim was over and had the chance to discuss developments, spend some time exploring the area and playing.
If you would like help developing the area round your nursery for outdoor play please contact Tim or Isi
The team have been busy outside so we haven’t had much chance to update the blog, so expect a flurry of posts when we get an opportunity.
Isi has found a great resource on the Virtual Hebrides Site
We particularly love bumble bees so the page about them was very useful but the page on wild flowers is also helpful in trying to identify the plants you might find. It is a well researched site and if you are trying to identify things you have found when you are outside in the Hebrides it is worth a visit.
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