Spent yesterday at the East of England showground in Peterborough. Ironically, as Truckfest set up outside in bright sunshine, we were inside with the curtains closed...The event was the fourth of a series of events to showcase LEARNING OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM.
A number of presentations went through the background to the website, and the support that is available for teachers.
From my perspective, there was of course a distinct absence of geography specifically mentioned, but there was actually very little mention of any particular curriculum area - that's the nature of the website.
There were a few interesting points:
- role of LOtC in re-professionalising the profession
- importance of subjects as the suggested timings could not be met by trips and visits
- development of Quality Badge for providers, which could be obtained through 2 different routes
- the idea that value was added by the actual 'place' where the activity took place
- importance of properly evaluating the experiences that students have while outside the classroom
Also discussion of the findings of the OFSTED report from October 2008
Also met up with Dr. Frances Harris from Kingston University, who has an interesting project looking at the response of farmers and schools to farm visits, given that we are in the year of Food and Farming.
It's coming up the date of the Hall Farm visit from last year (a FLICKR set of my images here which people might find useful) - I hope colleagues are going again, assuming it is repeated and goes ahead....
Finally, if you do want some learning to take place outside of the classroom, why not make use of the GA Secondary Phase Committee's excellent DOORSTEP GEOGRAPHY workshop that formed part of the recent GA Conference. (Follow the link to the Doorstep Geography blog)
View more presentations from geogrocks.
And if you're a provider, or someone looking for an experience for students, think about what the Quality Badge means for you.
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