School Workshops
Learning Outside the Classroom CPD
The value of Learning Outside the Classroom, and the positive impacts it can have on teaching and learning, is supported by an enormous body of evidence. But as experience is just as important to theory, our experiential INSETs always provide staff with opportunities to recall and reflect on their own outdoor memories.
CPD Description
Combining expert thinking and a real sense of how we all feel and behave differently in the open air, these programmes support staff in harnessing the outdoor spaces at your school and considering three main ways that they can be utilised:
- refreshing perspectives by “taking the indoors outdoors” – and ensuring you have appropriate resources;
- as fantastic resources in themselves, which can be used as inspiration for planning for any number of curriculum learning areas;
- and as the perfect settings for our learning trails, which stir a real sense of adventure in pupils and can be endlessly adapted.
Staff will step into the outdoor shoes of the pupils they teach for the day and take part in the activities as the children would before taking some time for some facilitated reflection, planning and sharing. By the end of the day all participants will have a shared ‘bank’ of brilliant outdoor activities, ready to deliver to their pupils the very next day.
Our most popular Learning Outside the Classroom INSETs include; Outdoor Maths and Outdoor Literacy.
| Year Groups | LOTC |
|---|---|
| Duration | Twilight / Half-day / Full-day |
| Space | Your outdoor space! |
FAQs
How many teachers can take part?
Anywhere from 6 teachers to the whole school staff!
What is the format of the session?
Sessions will be planned to suit the time available and the number of staff taking part. After initial discussion, and once you are ready to book, a timetable of activity will be suggested and you will be given the opportunity to amend this to better suit your requirements.
Are there any technical requirements?
There are no technical requirements.
Workshop Testimonials
“The poems look amazing and I am really excited to send these home with the children. The day was a huge success and the teachers really enjoyed the CPD. Thank you for such a wonderful experience.”
“The workshop was incredible engaging and informative … Lots of ideas and ways of delivering maths learning, increased confidence to take on maths topics with groups. We all agreed Jacksons energy and enthusiasm was contagious and left feeling excited to try what we had learned.”
Learning Outside the Classroom Twilight
If you don’t want a whole day focusing on Learning Outside the Classroom, why not opt for an Outdoors Twilight. Beginning with a look at the real benefits to teaching and learning of getting out into the fresh air, you can then choose to focus on Outdoor Maths, Outdoor Literacy or a combination of both.
Lasting around two hours, these sessions see staff venture outside themselves to experience first hand some of our tried and tested Outdoor Learning activities. They will then follow a structure to identify the ways that these could be adapted to work with their own pupils and to target other areas of the curriculum. Finally, and perhaps most usefully, we will look specifically at your outdoor space, and support staff in coming up with ways that this brilliant, free resource can be used to enhance teaching and learning in your school.
Outdoor Maths
There is much evidence to support the value of and the positive impacts it can have on teaching and learning, and whenever we deliver our INSET’s, staff can always recall their own wonderful outdoor memories. Our Outdoor Maths session involves investigating ways of utilising outdoor spaces as tangible maths resources, independent carousels, Maths Trails and Investigative Maths Bingo.
Combining expert opinion and a real sense of how we all feel and behave differently in the open air, this day supports staff in harnessing the outdoor space at your school for maths.
Related Workshops
Outdoor Maths
Outdoor spaces provide wonderful opportunities to explore how numbers and shapes create both the built and natural worlds.
Outdoor Poetry
Using school grounds as a resource, we’ll guide pupils to see ordinary things in extraordinary ways – and weave magical tapestries of words.
Collaborative Poetry
This workshop provides a fantastic way of linking poetry to other areas of the curriculum!