At Oakfields Primary School, outdoor learning is a key part of our curriculum. During KS1, we do outdoor learning weekly through their Science, Geography, RE and History lessons. Each lesson is carefully adapted to take place outdoors with an emphasis on hands on learning and making the most use that our outdoor learning environment has to offer.
For example, to understand what amphibians need to survive, we build mini ponds with water so the frogs can swim. We use leaves and sticks in them to provide shelter and make food imaginatively from nature- wiggly sticks as worms, feathers as flies and thick sticks as slugs! In History, when studying castles our outdoor learning classroom becomes our castle and we learn how to defend it by making a moat around it, working together to pull up the draw bridge and using imaginative weapons such as bow and arrows to fire at the attackers.
At KS2, each class gets an hour a week for one term of outdoor learning. In this we do Outdoor and Adventurous Activities (OAA) which covers a range of fundamental skills needed for orienteering, such as agility and endurance, navigation skills and map reading. During the unit, children will also be required to work as part of a team, to solve a range of problems that focus on collaboration and effective communication. They will improve their understanding of maps and learn about the features of an orienteering map, applying this understanding when completing an orienteering exercise. In the final lesson of the unit, they will work collaboratively to plan and prepare an orienteering course and also have a go at completing timed orienteering courses that others’ have designed. There is a focus on cooperation, communication and teamwork throughout the unit, which are all essential skills needed for outdoor adventurous activities.
To conclude our Outdoor Learning units, at the end of the term the students learn how to make fires in a safe way and secure way by understanding fire safety. They then learn to cook on the fire too: marshmallows, s’mores, popcorn, Roman breads and Egyptian breads are some of the products the children have learnt to cook.
