Learning Beyond the Classroom conference

It has been announced that a Learning Beyond the Classroom conference will take place on 21st April at High Ashurst Outdoor Education Centre, in Surrey.

The conference will highlight the importance of utilising Outdoor & Adventurous Activities (OAA) in the delivery of the school curriculum, and emphasise the impact that the outdoors can have on children and their learning progression.

The aim of the conference is to inspire and equip those who attend with practical ideas in order to create outdoor learning opportunities for pupils within their schools.

The conference will offer workshops for attendees to take part in that will provide information as to how to improve education with the aid of outdoor learning.

There will also be key speakers at the conference including: Jo Lewis, project manager for Natural Connections, Natural England; Professor Tim Gill who will talk about risk versus benefit in children’s learning; Colette Morris, who will explain how she has embedded outdoor learning into the curriculum; and Kim Sommerville, who will talk about the positive impact that high-quality residential learning can have on students.

The conference is suitable for Key Stage 1 and 2 teachers, sports co-ordinators, outdoor educations co-ordinators, and Primary school educationalists.

It is also suitable for teachers involved in the Primary to Secondary school transition.

Workshops at the conference

Surrey Outdoor Learning & Development will be running the workshops at the Learning Beyond the Classroom conference in April.

Some of the workshops that will be held will include: Developing your school grounds for Outdoor Education, which will explore the use of outdoor areas in schools for learning; Hands on History, which encourages teachers to incorporate local history into learning; How to make your residential ‘Brilliant’, exploring the key elements needed to make school residential trips stand out; and Messy Maths, promoting the use of numbers in an outdoor context.

Other workshops will include Words in the Wilderness, The Science of Combustion, Wild Art, Eco Schools, Ecology and Food Chains, Risk benefit to Outdoor Education, and Jungle Gym.

For more information visit  www.surreyoutdoorlearning.uk/news-and-events/learning-beyond-the-classroom-conference-2017-at-high-ashurst.