‘The best classroom and the richest learning environment are roofed only by the sky…’

Margaret McMillan

Intent

Outdoor Education at Park Lane Primary School aims to create life long memories for our pupils by giving them the opportunities to experience the awe and wonder of the great outdoors in order to promote learning in a stimulating, relaxing and enriching environment. Outdoor Education works hand-in-hand with other curriculum subjects to support 100% achievement for all children through practical lessons. Through all pupils’ unique journeys, they will gain core skills along the way that will be useful to them throughout their lives.

The philosophy of Forest School is to encourage and inspire individuals of any age through positive experiences and participation in engaging and motivating achievable tasks. These tasks, amongst other things, will set out to develop their: appreciation of nature, risk management, resilience and empathy.

All pupils will be given the opportunities to experience outdoor learning through Forest School sessions. In EYFS, children will be encouraged daily to experience the world around them and improve understanding through this. Pupils, from Year 1 to Year 6, will participate in half termly blocked sessions on a rotation basis during the year, in our own wooded environment, run by fully trained members of staff. By observing carefully, Forest School Leaders will scaffold and extend pupils learning through a range of planned and freely chosen activities. We aim to make every Forest School session fun and memorable for our pupils!

Our intent is that every child will leave Park Lane with a strong appreciation of nature alongside a range of life skills developed through both Outdoor Education and Forest Schools.

Implementation

Teachers at Park Lane Primary School:

• Have secure pedagogical understanding of the benefits of Outdoor Education to compliment and benefit other curriculum subjects.
• Promote a love of learning through Outdoor Education and Forest Schools.
• Utilise Outdoor Education and Forest Schools to explicitly teach and support Park Lane’s values-based ethos.
• Plan child-centred lessons that enable children to develop skills through open-ended activities throughout the sessions.
• Utilise Forest Schools and Outdoor Educations unique strengths and opportunities to develop pupil’s risk management skills.
• Have access to a range of resources such as tools and online resources to allow children to continually practice and develop the skills they learn.
• Ensure Outdoor Education is used in a cross-curricular manner so that skills are developed in other subjects.

Impact

Our Forest School curriculum is high quality, well thought-out and is planned to demonstrate progression. Children at Park Lane are deemed to be making good or accelerated progress in this subject, particularly SEN pupils. In addition to this, we measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:

• A reflection on standards achieved against the planned outcomes.
• Seesaw provides an evidence base showcasing children’s understanding within all outdoor sessions across the school.
• Children can articulate their learning and express key skills learnt in a session and across a sequence of learning.
• Children can analyse problems and display the skills needed to collaboratively solve them.
• Children’s learning prepares them for life by providing them with the opportunity to develop crucial skills that are essential for success.

Curriculum Documents