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Tag: Outdoor Learning

Time to get ‘Out and About’ with new outdoor maths resource

Posted on by Andrew McAteer

A brand new resource for teaching mathematics outdoors has now been launched by academics from Stranmillis University College and Dublin City University.

Developed with funding from cross-border teacher education organization SCoTENS, Out and About: Outdoor Activities for Key Stage 2 Mathematics is a free resource of ideas and activities that aim to support teachers in their planning and provision of outdoor learning experiences in upper primary.

With activities designed to enhance learning across areas such as Number and Algebra, Measure, Shape and Space and Handling Data, the resources were created by Stranmillis University College’s Dr Pamela Moffett and Dublin City University’s Dr Siún Nic Mhuirí, in collaboration with a professional learning community of teachers from the North and South of Ireland.

Speaking about the project, Dr Moffett and Dr Nic Mhuirí said, “This resource offers a wide range of ideas to promote children’s interest and engagement in mathematics through a variety of rich and meaningful experiences in the outdoor environment. Focusing on mathematics in KS2, the resource is a great support for all teachers, particularly those who are looking for ideas on getting started with teaching mathematics outdoors.”

Check out the resources here: https://www.stran.ac.uk/resource-centre/outandabout/

You can also view a recording of the online launch of Out and About here: https://youtu.be/YiVPjBGxpCA

As we move through Spring and into early Summer, there’s no better time to take children out of the classroom and into the outdoor environment.

Prioritising Play when Schools Reopen

Posted on by Andrew McAteer

In this blog John McMullen reflects on his lockdown experiences as a parent and his hopes for playful learning as schools re-open, making links to relevant research. Glenda Walsh concludes with some practical ideas for how we can prioritise and promote play post-lockdown.

Dr John McMullen is an Educational and Child Psychologist, and Senior Lecturer at Stranmillis University College.

Dr Glenda Walsh is Assistant Director of CREU, Head of Early Years Education and Principal Lecturer at Stranmillis University College.

The last CREU blog considered the positive experiences of some children and families during lockdown. Whilst not negating the severe challenges for many, this was a welcome, hopeful piece. When asked about hope in a recent podcast, the words of Howard Zinn came to mind: ‘If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places – and there are so many – where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.’

I’ve been inspired by the creativity, support and fun emanating from many teachers, parents and carers during lockdown. Much of this innovation would not have occurred without the adversity of a pandemic, and the most hopeful aspects appear to centre around play. Children have spent more time playing, and the adults appear to have become more playful too, including dads! During lockdown fathers have nearly doubled the time they spend on childcare. While it’s still less than mothers do overall, this is important. Recent research tells us that father-infant play, often in the form of physical play such as rough and tumble, is linked to positive social, emotional and cognitive outcomes.

Playing with my daughter has been the sunshine through the grey clouds of COVID-19. The closing of childcare put pressure on work life but provided, and necessitated, more play in family life. We’ve enjoyed camping trips, lighting fires, Lego, building rockets, exploring woods and rivers, eating fruit that we grew, and catching bugs. Caring for children can be demanding, but when we allow ourselves to see the world through a child’s eyes, in their adventure and their wonder, playfulness can benefit our well-being as much as theirs. As schools start back it feels like it has never been more important to prioritise play.

“We don’t stop playing because we grow old; We grow old because we stop playing.”

George Bernard Shaw

The Importance of Play

Regardless of a child’s situation, learning through play is crucial for development. Playing helps children to be happy and healthy in their lives today, but also to develop the skills to be the creative, engaged learners of tomorrow. Play experiences can support the development of early literacy and numeracy skills in an integrated manner, while also cultivating children’s social, emotional, physical, and creative skills. Through play children also develop executive functioning, language, and a sense of agency, which are pre-requisites for success in school.

Learning through play is sometimes associated solely with preschool and viewed as purely child-directed and unstructured. However there is a growing evidence base for the importance of playful experiences throughout school and in life-long learning. Pedagogical approaches including active learning, collaborative and cooperative learning, problem-solving and project work are highly relevant to learning through play beyond the early years of schooling. Play may be important in helping children of all ages to move beyond the learning of key content and facts, to a deeper conceptual understanding that allows them to apply their knowledge to different situations, spark new ideas, step into uncertainty, create opportunities for themselves and their communities, and learn throughout life.

The Problem with Play

Despite near universal consensus on the importance of play, research has identified obstacles in practice such as appropriate provision, adults’ roles, parental expectations, top-down pressures, and a perceived dichotomy between play and work. Where teachers do not have confidence and competence in translating quality playful approaches into practice, it follows that not all children will have access to play, let alone good quality play, in their educational setting. This situation could potentially worsen in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic as teachers are asked to prioritise ‘catching up’ on academic learning.

We caution against a dichotomous mindset. We argue for a more expansive understanding of play as learning in practice, where all aspects of children’s learning – personal, social, and academic can be fully enhanced and where playing, learning and teaching become fully synchronised. Perhaps if we see play as ‘the highest form of research’ as Einstein (may have) stated, it will embolden the community around each child to provide consistent, high quality, playful learning experiences.

The Impact of COVID-19

Not all children will have enjoyed playful experiences during lockdown. Almost all will have spent less time playing with children outside of their own family, i.e. their peer group. We do not know the long-term impact, if any, that widespread social isolation will have on their wellbeing.  However, some insight is offered by a recent rapid systematic review of 80 studies, published from 1946-2020, of the impact of social isolation and loneliness on the mental health of children and adolescents. This suggested that social isolation and loneliness increase the risk of depression and anxiety in children, and that duration of loneliness was more strongly correlated with mental health symptoms than intensity of loneliness. The authors concluded that there is likely to be high rates of depression and probably anxiety during and after social isolation ends. As a response, a number of mental health experts have urged the government to prioritise children’s play, socialising and emotional wellbeing over formal lessons and academic progress when schools reopen. This was supported and emphasised in the Department of Education NI guidance sent to all schools in June 2020.

How to Prioritise and Promote Play Post-Lockdown

The Lego Foundation have identified five essential characteristics of playful learning, namely joy, meaning, active engagement, social interaction, and iteration. Practical suggestions for facilitating these rich playful learning experiences were highlighted in a previous blog. For example, through child in playful bubbles wearing the same coloured wrist band, discouraging as far as possible children interacting in bubbles beyond that of their own in an effort to maintain a form of social distancing between groups. In addition, instead of making use of commercial play resources which may require deep cleaning on a daily basis, the time is ripe to make greater use of junk play materials such as cardboard boxes, rope, string, polystyrene, plastic bottles, and containers to name but a few, and an array of natural resources including bark, seeds, sand, mud, stones, pebbles, leaves, twigs and straw, all of which can be easily replaced on a daily basis. Indeed, as the risk of infection from Covid-19 is less prevalent in the outdoors, according to the scientific evidence, it seems only fitting to make greater use of the outdoors and in so doing provide a range of playful experience that are filled with many possibilities and adventure. Outdoors, children can engage in a variety of playful experiences in their bubble, whether it be building dens, climbing trees, exploring wildlife, gardening, playing in mud kitchens, engaging in STEM activities with water and sand, undertaking a range of physical exercises or simply having fun with their peers.

At present we are only too aware that further lockdowns might be re-introduced and if this happens to be the case, it’s vital that a playful pedagogy continues. Dr. Bo Stjerne Thomsen provides some useful ideas from a school in Denmark for transitioning to distance learning using playful pedagogies. In recent months during the lockdown experience in Northern Ireland it has similarly been encouraging to see the excellent response of the Education sector in advocating a playful approach to teaching and learning in the home (e.g. https://www.stran.ac.uk/ideas-for-active-minds/).

Perhaps the way forward lies in extending these home-learning ideas practised during lockdown, by introducing a somewhat playful approach to homework tasks. As parents, we know only too well the challenge it is to get young children to complete sedentary worksheets at home, already tired after a long school day and by so doing, frequently denying them that precious time to engage in more play-based activities at home and outside. As schools begin to re-open after lockdown, we suggest that not only is it a priority to foster a playful approach to teaching and learning in our classrooms but a more playful approach might also be infused into homework tasks in general.

“Play with me Daddy!”

My 3-year-old doesn’t know it yet, but this is an invitation to join her, not only in fun and adventure, but in the highest form of research; in her wonder and questioning; in her cognitive, social, emotional and physical development; and in building life skills she will need now and after this pandemic. What a privilege for parents and teachers alike.

 

Life after Lockdown in the Early Years Classroom: Embracing Challenges as Opportunities!

Posted on by Andrew McAteer

Dr Glenda Walsh (Head of Early Years Education, Stranmillis University College) and Mrs Stephanie Gillespie (Nursery School Principal and Early Years Specialist)

Preparations are underway in Northern Ireland for the reopening of all schools in September 2020, after a long period of lockdown, having been closed to the majority of pupils since mid-March. Clearly, navigating the challenges brought to the Education sector by a global pandemic invites decision-makers to do more than simply tinkering cautiously with pre-lockdown policies and practices. For the youngest children in our school settings, there are principles of early years pedagogy that endure, and we advocate for all that we know to be fundamental to the high quality and playful experience that is the right of every young learner. In this blog, we intend to address some of the obstacles specifically facing the early years phase of education and to offer potential solutions to ensure that the needs and interests of our young children are fully embraced. Major seminal studies (e.g. Heckman et al, 2010 and Schweinhart et al, 2005) have clearly showcased time after time the importance of getting it right in the early years of schooling, not only for children’s learning and development, but also for society and the economy as a whole. Let’s ensure that as the restart to school begins, we don’t let our youngest children down!

The post is structured using the framework of priorities outlined recently by the Minister of Education in the proposed Restart programme.

Physical Protection in the Early Years

A key priority is Physical Protection to ‘support, protect and enable our workforce as they lead the return to “new normal” education arrangements – protecting learners also.’ Evidence coming from the Danish model of schools’ re-opening shows that risk can be managed through a variety of measures. In some Danish early years settings this has meant adjusting class size to ‘bubbles’ of no more than 10. This is more straightforward in Denmark as the average class size at primary is 19 pupils, whereas the average Foundation Stage class size in NI is over 25. Cognisance needs to be taken of this difference and flexibility given as settings seek to put adequate measures in place for individual contexts. A ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach will not do. However, as we explore the issue of bubbles within our early years classrooms/settings, perhaps it is time to relish the opportunity of reduced class sizes and enhanced adult teacher-child ratios, something that we in the early years sector in Northern Ireland and the UK in general have been calling for over a long period of time.

Indeed a recent Guardian article referring to the Danish experience of re-opening schools reported that smaller groups bring a higher degree of wellbeing for pupils, and give the teachers more contact with them during the day. Whether we need to make use of a volunteer workforce as was the case in the NHS or embrace a blended learning approach to facilitate such a reduction in class numbers, let’s be creative in resolving this dilemma to allow our teachers to build those warm and secure relationships that are so paramount in an early years classroom, tune into all young children’s needs and interests and afford them learning opportunities that allow them to reach their full potential.

Outdoor learning is safer, and supports young children’s development

Maintaining a distance of up to 2m has become the new norm in many settings that have re-opened internationally and more recently in England. Images of desks spaced out in our classrooms, with painted markings on the floors, have flashed across our TV screens and the immediate response of those who know and work with our youngest children is that such measures will never be a complete success in an early years classroom. But how else do we keep our youngest children and their teachers safe? The answer lies in extending the early years classroom beyond its four walls and embracing the natural outdoors, as scientific advice has indicated that the spread of such a disease is less prevalent outside. Our Scandinavian colleagues have clearly showcased the potential of the outdoors, not only in terms of the available space to enable a degree of distancing to take place, but to zone off particular areas and through the use of, for instance, coloured arm bands, encourage children to play with these same children on a daily basis without being in contact with any other class peers. In this way, we would recommend the bubble idea being practised not only indoors but also in the outdoors. In addition, according to the Open University’s OPEN space Research Centre, there is a wealth of evidence emphasising that time spent outdoors increases life expectancy, improves well-being, reduces symptoms of depression and increases a child’s ability to function in school. Time spent in the outdoors is surely needed now more than ever where children can engage in a variety of playful experiences in their bubble, whether it be building dens, exploring wildlife and gardening, playing in the mud kitchen, engaging in simple scientific experiments with water or undertaking a range of physical exercises. Making effective use of the outdoors is therefore no longer a choice for our early years teachers/practitioners; it is an essential.

Hygiene and Infection Control Protocols

Adjusted hygiene procedures based on sound risk-assessment will undoubtedly be reassuring for parents and staff alike. Some schools in England have opted for handwashing on arrival at school and at hourly intervals. Nationally and internationally, schools have staggered starting and leaving times. Some staff understandably have expressed their anxieties about being adequately protected and there is discussion about the wearing of masks, visors and gowns. We would urge a risk-benefits approach at this point for our youngest children in Preschool and Foundation Stage. Early years practitioners are very creative and will rise to the challenge of implementing hygiene protocols that are less remote and possibly alarming for our youngest learners. Our young children are continually expressing their deep thinking around issues that adults might feel they alone have concerns about. One 4-year-old recently put on his Spiderman costume and then his hand gel and decided he was “going on a mission to save my friends! The virus is hurting people”. Likewise, many creative teachers have been encouraging young children to practise appropriate hygiene measures through the use of popular songs and rhymes such as Baby Shark, Happy Birthday and the Elbow Dab.

The need to constantly clean resources, in particular play resources, is causing some teachers to suggest that play may have to be abandoned for a period of time. However, the abandonment of play, in such a time of crisis, could only increase the anxieties that many children are already experiencing and result in a much more challenging transition back into school. We fully appreciate that the safety of children and staff is paramount, but making use of open-ended and natural materials in this current climate could act as a possible substitute. We suggest the use of junk materials in the form of cardboard boxes, rope, string, polystyrene, plastic bottles, blocks and containers to name but a few, and an array of natural materials including bark, seeds, mud, stones, pebbles, leaves, twigs and straw, all of which could be put in the bin after any play session and easily replaced for the next one. Early years specialists have been advocating a ‘less is more’ environment in early years settings for many years, where the emphasis on artificial resources is greatly reduced. Embracing such creative possibilities will enable young children to continue to enjoy the power of playful learning in a safe and secure manner.

Play resources are plentiful in the outdoors

Standards of Learning in the Early Years

Even before the Covid-19 outbreak, many in the Early Years community of practice were concerned at the downward pressure of the curriculum particularly for learners in the Foundation Stage, leading to a narrowing of the curriculum and an over-emphasis on core skills. Whilst an effort to provide a catch-up curriculum or to ‘maintain (or re-dress) educational standards’ is certainly needed in our schools, we might ask ourselves if such a ‘re-dress’ is necessary in the early years. Children’s academic learning may not have been progressed in the same way as it might have been at school, but it is important to note that many children have developed an array of skills and dispositions during this period of crisis that may be advantageous to them for future learning and indeed for life in general. A recent report on parents’ experiences of home-schooling, conducted by the Centre for Research in Educational Underachievement at Stranmillis University College, brought to our attention how young children, as compared with their older counterparts, appear to have enjoyed the remote learning experience at home with the support of their teachers and seemed quite motivated by it. Indeed Paul Ramchandani, Professor of Play in the PEDAL Centre at the University of Cambridge, has cautioned against turning homes into schools during the lockdown and instead recommended the power of play for all young learners.

We know that young children flourish with a holistic play-based approach. They especially need to practise skills that can only be facilitated by a rich, unhurried and play-based experiential curriculum. Such a playful learning experience affords opportunities for teachers to tune into the needs and capabilities of all young learners, providing each individual child with the support and/or challenge he/she requires and in so doing enabling a relaxed and pressure-free environment for all young learners as they transition into the school context. The ‘Pedagogy of Play’ research at the Harvard Graduate School of Education is particularly illuminating in terms of cultivating school cultures that value and support learning through play and provide us with much food for thought at this present time. The impetus is there for ‘outside the box’ thinking on how this playful approach might be facilitated in the new norm. Dr. Bo Stjerne Thomsen (Chair of Learning through Play in the LEGO foundation) writes of how the International School in Billund, Denmark transitioned to a distant learning approach using playful pedagogies, in recognition of the fact that children have an amazing natural potential to learn through play. In recent months in Northern Ireland it has similarly been encouraging to see the excellent response of the Education sector in supporting Home Learning through an engaging and creative use of online platforms (e.g. https://www.stran.ac.uk/ideas-for-active-minds/). It will be important for our youngest learners that any blended approach continues to incorporate active and playful methods for our youngest learners rather than a retreat into a more formal and paper-based approach or indeed an over-emphasis on digital learning, the negative impact of which has been clearly articulated in a recent report by Australia’s Gonski Institute for Education.

Well-being

Playful interactions and opportunities may be more essential now than ever. Mental health experts have advocated that play is prioritised rather than diminished when young children return to school due to the possible impact that the lockdown might have had on children’s mental health.

Recent experiences in one Covid cluster hub school in Northern Ireland reveal children’s emotional uncertainty and its impact on their mental health and wellbeing. Certainly, the voice of one 5-year-old highlights the need for social interaction and playful experience:

“I hate this Coronavirus. All I want to do is see my granny and grandpa. Why don’t people just do what they’re told and then all this will be over and I can play with my friends?”

Young children’s voices reveal their deep need for emotional connection, their thinking and possible underlying anxiety: “I miss my friends.

“When is all this Coronavirus going to be over? Where’s the hand sanitiser? You have to use it so you don’t get coronavirus. Will I ever go to nursery to see my friends again?”

In the words of another young child,

“It makes me very sad that I can’t see my friends and my teacher. I really miss the playground – especially the climbing frame.”

We therefore welcome the Minister identifying ‘the mental health and emotional wellbeing of the education workforce and learners as they return to education’ as a focus of the Restart Programme.

The youngest children’s voices remind us of the necessity of prioritising children’s play and social interaction with friends rather than focusing on academic progress. Many parents and teachers will understandably be anxious about academic progression and of course there will be a time to prioritise these areas in future. But as the lockdown restrictions begin to ease and a new normal is introduced into our classrooms, it is important to emphasise a balanced approach and to explicitly highlight the social and emotional benefits of play and socialising with peers for children in Nursery and the Foundation Stage. A risk-benefits approach, which recognises the benefits of play in helping relieve stress and anxiety among the children while simultaneously ensuring children are not exposed to unnecessary risk, is therefore paramount.

 

Back to School: Curriculum Matters and Covid-19

Posted on by Andrew McAteer

Every year the prospect of returning to school seems to come upon us earlier and earlier. Even before the summer holidays, shops are filled with rows of shiny new shoes, rails of crisp shirts, schoolbags, and bundles of socks in dazzling shades of clean. This summer in Northern Ireland, as we take ‘baby steps’ towards emerging from lockdown, the prospect of a new school year brings excitement, but also uncertainty. Governors, Principals and teachers are trying to figure out how best to welcome back children and young people, and establish routines that foster health and well-being, both physical and mental. All the talk of the ‘new normal’ can be daunting, for no-one really knows what the experience of school in 2020-21 will be like. The situation presents logistical conundrums to challenge even the most gifted of organisational minds.

Time for Change

But there are other questions too. One that lies close to my own heart is curriculum. When we do get back to school, whatever that might look like, how should we guide the learning of our children and young people? And in this unexpected context, how might we begin to understand success and achievement? Reflecting in The Guardian on education before Covid-19 George Monbiot wrote: ‘In an age in which we urgently need to cooperate, we are educated for individual success in competition with others. Governments tell us that the purpose of education is to get ahead of other people or, collectively, of other nations… But nobody wins the human race’.

The 2007 Northern Ireland Curriculum is a skills-infused framework curriculum that aims to ‘empower young people to achieve their potential and to make informed and responsible decisions through their lives’. This is commendable, but the Northern Ireland Curriculum is 13 years old, and its design was for a Northern Ireland before Covid-19. The word ‘unprecedented’ can feel overused, but the fact remains that we haven’t known times quite like these before. As we look ahead into the new school year and beyond, and in light of the seismic impact of Covid-19, globally and locally, not least in the lives children and young people, a fresh focus on curriculum seems timely and wise. In this piece, I’d like to consider three areas of learning that merit particular attention in our time and place: outdoor learning; the arts and humanities; and character education.

Outdoor Education

We are all aware that we can control infection more effectively outdoors. Furthermore in a recent article in The Guardian Libby Brooks highlighted the growing weight of evidence that suggests that outdoor learning is intrinsically beneficial. For example, learning outside offers great possibilities for building resilience. And if resilience is the ability to bounce back from adversity, this is surely worth developing as we move forward and prepare to live with Covid-19. During lockdown, many of us have been spending more time than usual outside, and as a result we have become more aware of the wonder and beauty of the environment, and the value, both mental and physical, of exercise. We should build on this momentum as we think about curriculum in the months and years ahead. A recent study in Scotland points to the rich learning opportunities of growing food in school gardens, even in urban areas.

Arts and Humanities

Some of the most inspiring a stories in the media during the Covid-19 crisis globally have centred around concern for the good of other people. Most memorably, in Italy, professional musicians sang and performed from their balconies. By sharing their skills in such a beautiful yet simple way, they brought joy to their neighbours and, thanks to technology, to us. Music, they said, can’t be quarantined.

Artists across the world have been facing enormous challenges during the current crisis. But in the middle of it all they have found very creative ways to offer hope. While excellence in science, mathematics and economics are inarguably essential as we seek to develop a vaccine for Covid-19, we should be mindful of the hopefulness and value of the arts and humanities. History, ancient and modern, has much to teach us in relation to our response to disease and pandemics. Moreover, in a fascinating piece, Nathan Fleschner writes of the kind of thinking that studying even the theory of music can foster. He argues convincingly that the arts and humanities can equip young people with the thinking skills needed in our current world, awash as it is with data and fake news.

Character Education

During lockdown, acts of kindness have multiplied in communities around the globe. Here in Northern Ireland, teachers have been at the forefront of magnificent efforts to support the children, young people and their families, and it has been heartening to see local colleagues honoured in this year’s National Association for Pastoral Care in Education awards.

We know that academic excellence is important, but in times of crisis we learn that compassion and kindness are of infinitely greater worth. We should explore initiatives that infuse curriculum with the development of virtues such as The Good Project and the Kindness Curriculum. There are more helpful resources online compiled by the Red Cross.  Another fine project is the Narnia Virtues: a Character Education English Curriculum that encourages the cultivation of good character through engagement with the Narnia Novels by Belfast’s very own C.S. Lewis. Seamus Heaney in his Five Fables, also placed value on the power of story in the development of moral imagination.

Of course great stories are told in many different languages and not just in English. The global resurgence in popularity of Albert Camus’s La Peste during the Covid-19 crisis is testament to this. The power of engaging the imaginations of children in the face of global challenges through story was considered at a recent French studies conference at Stranmillis University College. One of the delegates we welcomed to Belfast is Helen Patuck, who has since published an inspiring picture book to help children understand Covid-19, translated in several languages.

In a recent curriculum blog, I considered French philosopher Paul Ricœur for whom story was the gateway to understanding not only ourselves, but our relationship with the world and others. Ricœur argued that the story of each human being is precious. Children and young people across Northern Ireland and beyond will be returning to school with many different stories, and we should value each one of them.

Conclusion

In different ways, outdoor learning, the arts and humanities, and character education have the potential to generate hope. We must keep this in mind as we contemplate going back to school, as we review curriculum together, seeking to guide the learning of our children and young people, and prepare them to live well and achieve success in the future.

Sharon Jones is Senior Lecturer at Stranmillis University College and a CREU member. She sits on the Editorial Board of The Curriculum Journal.

Year 1 Geog/Hist Specialists Go Out and About!

Posted on by stran-admin

Year 1 Primary BEd students whose Area of Specialism is WAU Geography/History have been spending some time out and about looking at outdoor learning activities.

The focus of their specialism module is outdoor learning/ learning outside the classroom (LOtC); rather than do all of this inside a Central Building classroom, it was important to see and do some of this outside!

As well as taking part in activities on our wonderful College campus with P5 pupils from Stranmillis Primary School involving an ‘Autumn Walk’ and then a ‘Winter Walk’ and three visits to the school for classroom follow-up work (previously reported in Web News), the students have had two very different trips out to see primary school outdoor learning in action.

Clandeboye Estate in Bangor is the base for the HQ of the Northern Ireland Forest School Association (NIFSA), and the students and lecturer Dr Richard Greenwood were invited to take part in a Forest School activity morning with P1 and P2 pupils from Silverstream Primary School in Carrickfergus, their classroom assistants and their teachers, both former Stran students, Claire Cranston and Jancis Logue.

Ably led by Forest School leader Richard McMeekin and his colleagues, the pupils enthusiastically took part in pretending to be birds finding ‘worms’ (small lengths of different colours of wool) to learn about good colours for camouflage; they then worked in groups to make little animal shelters from the natural materials in Clandeboye’s wonderful Forest School area. Finally, after some free play time in the forest, marshmallows were toasted (some got rather burnt!) over a campfire and sandwiched between chocolate digestives to make ‘smores’. Thanks to Richard M and Brian Poots from NIFSA at Clandeyoye, and also thanks to Silverstream PS staff and pupils for allowing us to join in their fun and see the great learning which was going on!

In the same week the Year 1 students went to Lough View Integrated PS in the Castlereagh Hills to see the wonderful outdoor learning work that goes on there. We were warmly welcomed by principal Mr Sean Spillane and shown round the various outdoor learning areas and activities by teachers Sara Cartwright and Claire Beckett and pupils Isla and Killian. The teachers’ enthusiasm for all things outdoor learning shone through as they walked us round play areas with willow shelters, a pond, allotments, a nature trail and a poly-tunnel where lots of plants are grown and sold, all with spectacular views over Belfast, even on a murky November afternoon! Killian and Isla spoke enthusiastically and knowledgeably about all of these outdoor activities, the things that can be done there and the plants and animals that inhabit them. The students were greatly impressed! We also got to listen in on a ‘Nature Detectives’ activity, led by Mr Stevenson, a teacher who recently retired but comes back in to lead this club! The wonderful outdoor learning provision at Lough View is largely down to his hard work and leadership over many years.

The students laughed and agreed heartily when it was suggested that they would all love to do their School Based Work at Lough View!!

To see some photos of Lough View’s outdoor learning areas, go to:

https://www.loughviewintegrated.co.uk/school-info/curriculum/

Top: Forest School fun; Bottom: Lough View IPS teachers Sara Cartwright and Claire Beckett with P6 pupils Isla and Killian.
Top: Year 1 Geog/Hist students exploring the campus; bottom: with Silverstream PS P1 and 2 pupils doing ‘Forest School’ on Clandeboye Estate.