Key features of the walk include:
-A different walking route each day
-Different terrains, generally off road on footpaths and bridleway
-Out in all seasons and in all weathers
-Morning sessions generally last for approximately 2.5 to 3 hours
Having discovered that Farrise engaged in these practical outdoor learning experiences, we explored opportunities to extend his experience into other areas of his curriculum and wider life skills development.
The walking sessions have evolved from being solely ‘experience the moment’ one off walking sessions, into a series of extended, more joined up, cross curricular learning opportunities.
The initial ‘light bulb’ moment was shared by both Farrise and the group leader, it occurred on a particular Wet, Welsh, Soggy, Windy, Cold, Spring morning along a Squelchy, Muddy footpath about a mile away from Womaston.
On this particular walk Farrise had gestured for the group leader to put his gloves on for him. The group leader encouraged Farrise to put the gloves on himself, which was initially quite frustrating for Farrise. One of Farrise’s ‘Individual Learning Plan’ (ILP) targets was to count a specific number of objects/items on a target number of times a day, (because Farrise tended to recall numbers from 1-14 without stopping when the desired number had been counted).
The group leader encouraged Farrise to count the number of fingers on each glove ‘5’. Farrise then tried counting the number of fingers he managed to place correctly into the 5 fingered glove. After quite a few failed attempts to get the glove on and to count the number of fingers correctly, both Farrise and group leader saw the funny side of looking for the lost finger. Eventually the lost finger was found and Farrise had 5 fingers correctly placed in each glove. Farrise tried this again with his other hand, but on this occasion he stopped counting when he got to 5, as all fingers had been found. Something seemed to click as Farrise counted several other objects correctly on the remainder of the walk, e.g sheep in a field, number of people in our group, number of segments in his tangerine etc. The group leader’s light bulb moment was seeing the potential for extending these experiences into other areas of students learning.
There are many examples of how the focus on outdoor learning walks has engaged and contributed to skills development opportunities for Farrise. A session has been created where the walking group leader uses a selection of photographs taken on walks to generate interest in literacy study sessions. The session has now evolved into a discussion and matching activity where Farrise looks at some photographs, cuts them out using scissors, matches a photograph with a symbol descriptor, chooses which ones to stick on an evidence recording form then handwrites the key words from the symbols. He counts and names objects, colours and people and his confidence in handwriting has improved as a result of these regular sessions. This has enabled Farrise to extend his handwriting skills into other areas of education and home life. One evening he picked up a pen and wrote down his choice of evening activities in sequence independently then took it to a member of staff to show them and to read from. He also writes his own lists now in ICT sessions and Mum was very impressed to see the evidence sheets as she had never seen his handwriting before. Farrise has now succeeded in writing his first letter to his mum!
We are very proud of Farrise, particularly when recently he gained an AQA Award in Woodland Walking and put together his own evidence file of photos and handwriting.
Our 24 hour approach to learning across the education and residential setting at Womaston has supported, complemented and generated regular opportunities for students to apply the skills developed from outdoor learning. We have a focus on prior planning, participation and post activity reviewing and evaluating, and of course always striving for Great Interactions whatever the weather!
Nic Pugh
Teacher
MacIntyre School, Womaston