ABINGTON PARK.

“The Incredibles” - Andrew Vigor, Ann-Marie Panczel, Michael Cooper & Shelley Thomasson

WE HAVE CONSIDERED THE FOLLOWING TO BE OF GREAT IMPORTANCE WHEN CONSIDERING A LEARNING OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM EXPERIENCE FOR CHILDREN.

THROUGHOUT OUR PLANNING WE HAVE CONSIDERED THE POTENTIAL IMPACTS THAT THESE EXPERIENCES CAN HAVE ON CHILDREN - BOTH WITHIN THEIR EDUCATION AND AS PART OF PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT SO THAT WE COULD DEVELOP A PLAN FOR A VISIT TO ABINGTON PARK THAT FITS INTO OUR MEDIUM TERM PLANS AND ALLOWS CHILDREN TO MAKE GOOD PROGRESS IN ALL AREAS OF THE WIDER CURRICULUM. WE CONSIDER THAT BY PROVIDING A REAL WORLD EXPERIENCE IT WILL ENHANCE THEIR LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT.

REASONING FOR A LEARNING OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM EXPERIENCE.

Having an opportunity to experience the world outside the classroom can be an essential part of learning and personal development.

It gives children the chance to raise achievement through direct learning experiences.

Ofsted support well planned and implemented learning outside the classroom experiences. It has been reported that these experiences can have numerous benefits for children and can help raise achievement.

Arthur & Cremin (2010)

According to ‘The learning outside the classroom manifesto’, published in 2006, the impact on children’s learning is significantly enhanced when education is sought through rich outdoor activities such as educational school trips (DfES publications, 2006).

Learning outside the classroom experiences are supported by Blooms Taxonomy – where it considers that it allows children the opportunity to experience learning in a different environment and that it has been seen to allow children the chance to develop a confidence and competence in learning. (Noble, 2004).

THE COUNCIL FOR LEARNING OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM SUGGEST THAT:

“Real-world learning brings the benefits of formal and informal education together and reinforces what good educationalist have always known: that the most meaningful learning occurs through acquiring knowledge and skills through real-life, practical or hands-on activities.”

http://www.lotc.org.uk

ASPECTS OUR GROUP CONSIDERED TO BE IMPORTANT WHEN CONSIDERING LEARNING OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM.

Real world experiences gained from out of classroom experiences help to raise aspirations, equipping children with skills they need to become active and responsible citizens.

They allow the chance for educational inequality to be addressed – giving children who do not necessarily thrive within a classroom environment to have the chance to re-focus in different areas. Learning outside of the classroom can offer a chance for children to be more engaged than within a classroom whilst also providing increased levels of self esteem.

These experiences can help to support children back in a classroom environment. LOTC experiences can help to boost standards and help children to develop their personal, social and emotional attributes.

ABINGTON PRE-VISIT. On our pre-visit to Abington Park we explored

the learning outside of the classroom opportunities. We had the chance to experience some lessons, from which we have been able to develop our own lesson ideas for this out of the classroom environment.

The following slides detail what we did for various wider curriculum subjects during our pre-visit to Abington Park. After the visit we discussed our experiences to see if we could use them in developing our own lesson plans.

ART. We had the opportunity to draw pictures of the

area using different media – ipads, pencils or charcoal. Below is a selection of our drawings – we were attempting  to do a perspective drawing of a part of the park.

GEOGRAPHY. In our wider curriculum project group we

planned a lesson that we might include as a part of our own field trip – we decided (for a KS2 class) to give them a map with grid references and get the children to go to the coordinates given and take a photo of their flag in that spot – they would be using their grid skills and we decided we would consider during our planning sessions to see what else might be involved in the activity.

Also, we found a fantastic example of how a stream feeds into a river – which we thought might be an exciting bonus for our trip.

HISTORY. We visited the museum where they explained

that they focus on many different areas of the curriculum and different parts of history – it was really interesting to discuss what we might use and how we would prepare for the trip/how we would follow up later on back in the classroom.

P.E We were given some props and told to do a

project – we worked with another group and went around the park with our props doing some filming. After we returned we edited the video to make this movie trailer – We used imovie to create the trailer, which was easy and enjoyable to use. We believe the children would be able to manage it quite well and would be able to develop their computing skills through it.

The final product is shown on the following slide.

This video may require you to slide the tracker to the start to view. If this video is not available as an embedded video – please access it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qVDQoX-qsM or within the Presentation page on our group blog.

LESSON OVERVIEW – REASONS FOR OUR CHOICE

During this visit, the thirty, year four children will have a chance to explore different topics linked to areas of the wider curriculum such as Art, PE, Geography and Computing, with ICT being the main focus because it links all of the subjects together.

The school trip to Abington will allow the children to explore a different learning environment and synthesize the knowledge of classroom theory into a real experience with lasting meaningful importance.

COMPUTING.

Main lesson Focus: Children in their ICT groups are to take props and story boards that they have created and film the scenes that they need to create an action movie trailer.

This links in to in-school computing lessons where the children have been learning how to use the movie editing software in preparation for this project.

This project is to create a short movie trailer which will lead to a larger project in the following school term where the children will be creating a longer movie using the same process.

The computing focus during this half term will also allow children to develop and progress their computing skills, ahead of the New Curriculum change in September, which is set to ‘educate and equip pupils to use computational thinking and creativity to understand and change the world’ (NC 2014).

ART

Main lesson Focus: Children will collect items for and create a natural collage, which can be photographed, and left without causing damage to the environment. In addition, the children will take photographs of natural materials as a start to their upcoming work in school.

The children will have been looking at various types of collages (refer to MTP) and artists that create this form of art.

The work will continue upon the return to school where children will create a digital collage – using photographs. The children will use computer software to manipulate the media collected to create a digital collage.

GEOGRAPHY Main lesson Focus: Children in groups of 5 with an adult to

use a map with grid references to find locations in Abington park and record that they have been there by taking a photo a that point.

The photographs will be used in post-visit lessons where the children will create an interactive map (linking to computing focus). The work will be differentiated where needed by an explanation and research into what has been found in each location.

In preparation for this lesson the children will have been looking at grid references and maps – they will have completed a mock version of this activity within the school grounds.

The main focus of the lesson is to develop the children’s understanding of maps and grid references.

The following slide shows an example of the type of interactive map the children will make using the photos and information they have obtained during the trip.

Click the arrows to discover what was found at this grid reference.

DIFFERENTIATION. Differentiation for this learning outside of the

classroom experience has been approached in different ways: Differentiation through support – children will

be working in mixed ability groups during the day whom will support each other in the tasks provided both on the day and within the post-trip activities. There will be an adult in charge of each group to offer support to those who need it throughout the day.

Differentiation through outcome – although the children will be working in mixed ability groups, the work will be differentiated based on the outcome from each group as our expectations will vary on the children within the group.

LOGISTICS OF THE TRIP – THINGS THAT NEED TO BE CONSIDERED.

The coach would be organised to drop us off in the morning and then return in the afternoon.

Children would be expected to bring a packed lunch and drink with them to eat – we are in negotiations with the museum to use the building as a base in case of wet weather. There may be a fee for this which would have to be negotiated.

The bus and hire of the room in the museum would have to be accounted for.

The adults planning to attend the trip would need to be finalised. It may be necessary to ask for parent volunteers as additional support if there are not enough school staff to provide the support needed.

Each lesson will have a clear lesson objective that will be shared with the children. The children will be given an insight into the day’s activities prior to the trip in order for them to develop an understanding how the day will fit into their normal foundation subject lessons.

SUMMARY – WHY WE CONSIDER IT WOULD BE BENEFICIAL FOR THE CLASS TO HAVE A TRIP TO ABINGTON PARK.

There are many ways in which the children would benefit from this learning outside the classroom experience. Our group have considered the following when preparing this visit to Abington Park and the lessons it will support:

PERSONAL AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT– Learning outside of the classroom experiences can have an impact on children’s attitudes towards learning a subject; aid children in developing their confidence; offer an opportunity to develop communication and social skills; provide a deeper understanding of the REAL world; encourage an interest in the environment and how it affects them and enable spiritual, emotional and moral development.

MOTIVATION – Learning outside the classroom experiences can help to motivate children and encourage them to take an interest in a new area of learning.

LEARNING STYLES – These experiences provide a key opportunity for children with varying learning styles to experience new approaches to learning.

WELL BEING AND SENSE OF SELF - Children may experience a sense of well being that develops from a deeper understanding of the world around them.

EXPERIENCE JUSTIFICATION.

By providing the children with this out of the classroom experience, it is considered that we would not only be enhancing their lives academically but on a personal level too. The children will experience new approaches to learning that can provide them with an opportunity to develop as a whole person.

The trip to Abington Park will provide a focus to the learning in the wider curriculum during this half term. It will provide a real world experience to support their learning and development in the classroom.

REFERENCES Arthur, J. and Cremin, T. (2010) Learning to Teach in the Primary School, Oxon:

Routledge.

Council For Learning Outside the Classroom (2014). Available: www.lotc.org.uk. Last accessed: 22nd May 2014

Department of Education. (2006). Learning Outside the Classroom Manifesto. Available: http://www.teachers.org.uk/node/5410. Last accessed: 22nd May 2014.

Department of Education. (2014). The National Curriculum. Available: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-curriculum. Last accessed: 22nd May 2014.

Noble, T. (2004) ‘Integrating the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy With Multiple Intelligences: A Planning Tool for Curriculum Differentiation’ , Teacher’s College Record, vol. 106 no. 1, January, pp. 193 – 211.

Ofsted (2008) ‘Learning Outside the Classroom’ Ofsted Report. Available: www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/learning-outside-classroom . Last accessed: 22nd May 2014.