The mobile curriculum

Developing the Learning Outside the Classroom (LOtC) provision in your school grounds, local community or further afield can have an enormous impact on enthusing, engaging and motivating pupils to learn.

LOtC is particularly effective in raising the achievement of groups with individual needs including free school meals, SEN, boys and other children who may not thrive inside the classroom environment.
    
Furthermore, new evidence is emerging to demonstrate that LOtC can raise attainment across all areas of the curriculum including core subject areas such as english, maths and science.
    
A recent piece of research from the Education Endowment Fund has found that giving pupils memorable experiences to write about, such as educational visits to zoos, farms and country parks and talks with war veterans, can improve their literacy skills by the equivalent of nine months – and 18 months for disadvantaged pupils on free school meals.
    
Kevan Collins, the Education Endowment Fund chief executive, has said: “It’s rare to find schemes that demonstrate such a large impact when they are rigorously tested. That’s why we are excited about the potential this project could have in helping struggling students significantly improve their writing skills.”
    
Learning Outside the Classroom is the use of any space beyond the classroom for teaching and learning, from the school grounds to local museums, wild spaces or places of worship. By combining regular experiences close to home with more occasional educational visits and residentials further afield, schools can provide an inspiring and memorable curriculum which links knowledge gained inside the classroom to the real world that lies beyond.

Curriculum
The new national curriculum is giving schools the opportunity to be creative with lesson planning and take a fresh look at how and where they achieve the best outcomes for their pupils. Many are designing a thematic curriculum where termly ‘wow events’ bring learning to life. Others are thinking about how the real world can be used to facilitate the development of problem solving mathematical skills, scientific working or a love of literature.
    
The key point for senior leaders to remember is that LOtC is most successful when it is an integral element of long-term curriculum planning and closely linked to classroom activities. (Ofsted, Learning Outside the Classroom, how far should you go? 2008)

With this in mind, LOtC Mark was launched in 2012 to help the use of LOtC most effectively, to raise standards and to demonstrate the effectiveness of your provision.
    
LOtC Mark is the first national accreditation for schools, nurseries and other educational establishments which recognises and supports the development of learning outside the classroom across all subject areas. Schools are benchmarked at either Bronze, Silver or Gold level, with guidance and support to help schools to progress through the levels and drive up the quality of their LOtC offering.

Case Study: Boston West Academy
Boston West Academy has recently become the 6th school nationwide to be awarded the new LOtC Mark accreditation at Gold level, and its journey is a compelling story of the impact of Learning Outside the Classroom on the improvement of a school. Headteacher Mike Schofield shares the school’s story below.
    
Wellies at the ready, an ample supply of mud and lots of imagination – all crucial elements of the curriculum at Boston West Academy. This is no radical new agenda, but part of a thoughtful approach to learning and engagement that has led to better results and a richer experience for everyone involved. Learning Outside the Classroom is an exciting, sensible and increasingly necessary part of running a school.
    
Boston West was in Special Measures when I joined in 2000. In particular, it was the children’s bond with the school that needed work; their general attitude to learning was passive, whilst the behaviour of a significant minority was disruptive. Now, the children are engaged, they’re fired up and enjoying themselves, whilst standards reached and have been maintained at a high level.
    
It started with an environmental focus. I joined at the same time as a teacher with a science background, whose passion for environmental issues complemented my belief in the power of first-hand experience and real-life learning opportunities.
    
One of the first things we did to change the whole school culture was to get the children directly involved and feeling valued. We started one of the early primary school councils, asking children what changes they would like. Initially, they focused on the playground, which presented an opportunity for ‘quick wins’ to improve the grey rectangle with faded netball court markings. We also had a lot of green space with some trees but none of it developed. Over time, we’ve made use of every square centimetre of our school grounds, allowing the children to drip ideas through and be part of a transformation.

We have a woodland area, a pond, a place for camp fires, a tepee (symbolic of early settlement for lessons, but also a very handy place to store our firewood), a mud factory (where children can make anything with mud, sticks, leaves, acorns, or whatever is around) and a collection of sculptures made by local artists to add a touch of inspiration.
     
Today, every subject is delivered outside – maths, english, science, history, art – and there is a minimum weekly time expectation, beyond PE sessions, for children to be learning outdoors. We have a framework of skills and knowledge, but with a significant level of flexibility for staff to respond to the children’s needs, interests and what is happening in the world around them. With wellies at hand, learning can always be taken outside to seize the moment.
    
So children work in, with and, at times, learn specifically about the natural environment. There is a focus on teaching skills not only within subject areas but in group interaction whilst solving real, practical problems. Who can say which pieces of knowledge are the most important? So we try and equip children with the skills to acquire any kind of knowledge they need or that excites them. Being outdoors and surrounded by real things, with their own character and subject to all the variations of the natural world; the sun, wind, rain, snow, is always an inspiring and liberating starting point for learning.

Unless the weather is really bad, we’ll be out there. For example, to teach adjectives in Y1, the teacher read ‘Charlie’s Superhero Underpants’, then developed the whole lesson in the grounds, with children searching for items of clothing that the wind had blown off the washing line, in keeping with the story. What resulted was motivation, engagement, challenge through differentiated tasks and good learning outcomes for every child – and they loved it.
    
Developing our grounds has also proved to be successful in building a partnership with parents. Every term we have a weekend Grounds / Eco Day when everyone pitches in – parents, children, staff and the wider community, working as a team for something that everyone can see is important – and we have fun. It’s a great leveller: much more likely, as a starter, to engage any ‘hard to reach’ families than through more traditional curriculum sessions.
    
Not all staff are equally comfortable with taking children outside – like parents, they worry. They need to build confidence, establish rules and working area boundaries. In fact, in our experience, the children’s behaviour is always excellent. We do the necessary risk assessments, and within this framework we teach the children about the risks and how to be safe, gradually building their understanding and ability to make their own judgements.

The original science teacher is now Outdoor Learning Leader; Emma Schofield provides in‑house coaching, as well as supporting teachers’ planning. Using our on-site outdoor learning centre, The Hive, we now offer consultancy and training courses to staff beyond the school. This has been extremely well received and will support other schools in developing their own approach to learning beyond the classroom. A two-day residential course is being planned for Spring 2015, in partnership with Freiston Outdoor Environmental Centre.

Alongside our children’s growing enthusiasm  for gardening, our work has prompted wider interest within the community, resulting in an increasing number of mutually beneficial partnerships with local organisations and businesses.
    
We were delighted to achieve the RHS Level 5 School Gardening Award and take a group of children to visit the Chelsea Flower Show as part of a national school gardening project. Our grounds and gardens also received RHS Gold and Best School Garden Awards in East Midlands in Bloom.
  
Our journey has presented many challenges but with determination and relentless hard work over many years, whilst many initiatives have come and gone and within the demands of continuous school improvement, we have kept our philosophy central to our work. Barriers are there to be broken down – what are we if we don’t follow and stick to our principles and beliefs?
    
As I frequently say to our children ‘If you believe, you can achieve!’
    
And I am pleased to say that Emma Schofield, Outdoor Learning Co-ordinator at Boston West Academy, has been awarded the accolade of Best Educator category in the national Awards for Outstanding Contribution to Learning Outside the Classroom.

Further information
www.lotc.org.uk