Serial Day Tasks

During your eight serial days, you should spend the equivalent of three days gathering this information, by observing, speaking to class teachers and other colleagues, interacting with learners, reading school policies, and any other appropriate activities. The tasks will be explained in greater detail in relevant sessions during the module.

• Mapping of school grounds/area.
• Evidence of existing engagement with sustainable education within the school such as garden area, recycling bins, litter picking ‘wardens’, bird boxes, and so on.
• Consideration of actual play space for children and its suitability.
  • What opportunities are there for exploration, development, challenge etc.?
  • How is this space used?
• Discussion with children on these aspects of sustainable education.

Upon arrival of the school, I was able to clearly identify that the school was actively eco-friendly due to the recycling bins and composting areas etc. After spending time walking around the school grounds and becoming familiar with the area, I then spent time with the children discussing the grounds and how everything is mapped out. Within the classroom, the children have access to Apple Mac PC’s and they were very excited to show me that they could find their school on Google Maps and zoom into in further detail. At the front of the classroom, they had a display wall with different recycling ideas and the name of the pupil who represents the Eco Committee. The school is located within small housing estates but still has plenty greenery surrounding it. It has a very large open playground that has plenty grass and tarmac to play on as well as a garden area, recycling bins, and an outdoor gym. Inside the school, the classrooms are set out in ‘bays’. These range from infants, middle school, and upper school. All of the classrooms located in the bays are open-plan and very spacious. Throughout the school, there are many other offices that are allocated for reception, head/depute head teacher, and the janitor’s office etc. There is a large gym hall with excellent staging facilities which is also used for performances and at lunch time as a dinner hall.

There is clear evidence that this school is actively engaged with sustainable education. There is a well-kept garden area whereby children spent time planting flowers during their assembly time. This was a great example of outdoor learning being encouraged and it enabled the children to have a “hands-on” approach. There are recycling bins both outdoors in the playground, and also in and around the entire school. All of the children found this very important and they always recycled properly. The outdoor learning area is currently going through an enquiry about being redeveloped and the school have applied for grants to aid them with this. Furthermore, the school have also requested for funds to help create an outdoor classroom for the children.

The children were extremely excited to show me the outdoor gym that they have in the playground. This encourages the pupils to be active during their playtime, and as there are many different types of equipment, they can explore them all. The outdoor gym promotes ‘Fresh-Air Fitness’ and every child I spoke to stated that they loved playing in this area. Outdoor gyms benefit children greatly;  getting them into the fresh air, burning energy whilst having a huge amount of fun, this encourages the children to enjoy exercise. The children mostly use this space during playtime however it can also be used during a structured PE lesson too.

The children are excited about the idea of recycling and giving back to our planet. As they are involved with an Eco Committee, this gives the children the opportunity to feel more independent as they are given responsibilities and engage in conversations with fellow members of the committee and teachers too. During my time spent at placement, the children were introduced to the ‘Rag-Bag’ scheme. They were more than happy to explain to me what this was and how they were going to engage with it. This scheme has been developed to raise awareness of Textile Recycling. The children understand that by participating with schemes like this and sustainability in general, they are helping the environment and helping local authorities to meet recycling targets as well as raising funds for the school, or other local venues/authorities.