| Summary: | The RSPB owns more than 180 nature reserves. In this programme we follow teacher Ailsa Martin taking her class of Year 4 pupils from Bowes Primary School, north London on a trip to their nearest RSPB reserve, Rye Meads in Hertfordshire. For many of the children visiting the countryside is a completely new experience. Education Officer at the reserve Caroline Gellor leads the innovative curriculum-linked activities, which include exploring mini-beast world , a pond-dipping session, and introducing the children to the joys of bird watching from a specially-constructed hide. We also observe how the out-of-classroom learning transfers back in to the classroom when the class returns to school. Professional RSPB educators provide field teaching at more than 40 locations, allowing more than 50,000 school children from all over the UK to enjoy real-world learning.
The Forest Schools concept comes originally from Scandinavia where there has been a long tradition of encouraging very young children to play and learn in the outdoors. A group of Year 1 children from Charlbury School, Oxfordshire, and their teacher Gill Senior, make one of their regular visits to a local wood. Last year these visits were led by Richard Mulvaney, a Forest School leader employed by the local council, but now Gill has qualified as a Forest School Practitioner herself. Because the children have been visiting these woods every fortnight from the moment they started in reception they have become unusually at home in this environment, whatever the weather. Through-child initiated activities we see them learning about the natural environment, how they handle risks and how they use their own initiative to solve problems and co-operate with others. Their teachers talk about the children's growing confidence and self-motivation.
Twenty-first century youngsters are more likely to have holidayed abroad than to have explored England's fields and farms, but in the Year of Food and Farming increasing numbers of farms are trying to change that. With recent research showing that more than one million children across the country have had absolutely no contact with the land, a campaign has been launched to help children find out more about the countryside and where their food comes from through memorable, first-hand learning experiences on farms. Year 8s from St Bartholomew's School, a comprehensive in the rural town of Newbury, visit Rushall Farm, an organic farm in Berkshire. The visit shows that even children brought up in country areas often have very little idea of what is going on in the countryside around them and how it relates to the food on their plate.
The Field Studies Council, an educational charity committed to bringing environmental understanding to all, has a network of 17 education centres around the UK. The FSC gives more than 50,000 children a year the opportunity to explore the natural environment.We follow a group of Year 9s on their residential trip to an FSC field centre in the Lake District. For many of the pupils, from Chessington Community College on the outskirts of London, this is their first experience of the British countryside. The trip is being led by the school's Director of Sport, Alan Lammas, who is keen to promote a love for outdoor pursuits. Paul Bond, head of the Castle Head field centre,and his field-workers manage to raise the pupils awareness of a wide range of environmental and ecological issues as they take them ghyll scrambling, completing a sea level traverse , and canoeing on Lake Coniston.
|
|---|
