Sharing Good Practice
THINK OUTDOOR EDUCATION
BY JUDITH FINNEMORE
O
ne Outdoor Education centre
in Scotland defines outdoor
education as ‘programmes
usually involving residential
or journey-based experiences in which
students participate in a variety of
adventurous, memorable challenges.’
Think Outward Bound: tramping
through forests, fording rivers,
negotiating the odd precipitous cliff
and generally engaging in physical
activities designed to foster teamwork
and individual resilience. searching rock pools on the beach,
examining adaptation to tidal changes
and developing an understanding of
phototropism by measuring angles of
leaves in biology. When I ask in schools
why they do not try this form of outdoor
applied learning, I am given a range
of excuses: the book explains it well
enough, there is no time and a whole
host of concerns about behaviour
management, especially where boys
are concerned. This, I am afraid, just
does not wash.
From a personal perspective, outdoor
education is a whole lot more than this.
Anything we do outside the confines
of the classroom or other confined,
walled space has the potential to
expand the learning environment.
Education limited to the learning of
text for the sake of filling a head with
knowledge or to pass examination
hurdles is simply not adequate in the
21st Century. Fortunately, my own
schooling in New Zealand many years
ago recognized this, and I can vividly
recall exploration of the creatures
associated with the ragwort plant in the
compilation of a food web, hours spent Testament to the need for courage, is
the Phoenix Academy Farm in West
London, set up in 2007 on a disused
block of land adjacent to the school.
In the middle of one of Britain’s most
socially deprived housing estates, the
school had more than its fair share
of challenges. In 1999 only 5% of
students achieved five good passes as
GCSE. By 2007 this had risen to 77%
and it did not stop there. On a daily
basis, it was a ‘lively’ school populated
by a small number of interesting,
sometimes volatile, characters who
did not necessarily see school as
worthwhile. The farm was one reason
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Class Time
attitudes changed. It recognized
that not all students are academics
and fostered in many an interest that
sparked a desire to know more and,
perhaps, acquire qualifications that
led to a career. It was smart thinking
when the alternative was sometimes a
seemingly more attractive life on the
‘street’. Few schools in this part of
the world experience the challenges
Phoenix did, but many have swathes of
disaffected students. There needs to
be a will to change the status quo and
add a far more engaging dimension to
the curriculum.
At my alma mater, Otumoetai College,
medium-sized
secondary
school
in New Zealand, a whole range of
courses cater for every interest and
ability (www.otc.school.nz ) but,
most importantly, recognizes the
importance of crediting relevant
outdoor activity. Not only can students
attend offsite practical courses at
the local Institute of Technology, one
of many partnerships between the
college and institutes of learning,
some students are able to work on local
farms or undertake apprenticeships in