Education Today Education Today Magazine
A Kent environmental education centre has set up its own YouTube channel so parents can see for themselves how outdoor learning helps children gain a sense of their own individual interests, strengths and abilities.
Rippledown, in Ringwould near Deal, works with schools from across the UK and Europe to show children how connecting with nature can be inspiring and fun.
The first video to be posted shows children from Macaulay Primary School in Clapham, London, learning about marine life during their residential visit. The class took their nets and buckets to nearby St Margaret’s Bay for a rock pooling session in which they found green crabs, sea snails, shrimps and even a blenny fish.
This film captures the children’s experience in their own words, giving them a useful record of their day, which they can use in their follow-up activities in the classroom. The video also gives parents a deeper understanding of their child’s unique outdoor learning experience.
Watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIcT70vmh8rcGpenuq9eU1g
Rippledown Outdoor Learning Centre, run by The Bay Trust, one of the UK’s leading environmental education charities, hosts the visits for the Learning Away #BrilliantResidentials campaign.
More films are planned for the YouTube channel, showing viewers the many ways in which outdoor activities can teach children about teamwork, orienteering, horticulture and sustainable living.
Rippledown has welcomed more than 40,000 school children since it opened in 1977, providing each of them with a unique education at the old rectory house. For some, this is their first experience of being away from home.
Rippledown’s residential education programmes attract schools from across London and the South East, including East Anglia, and also France and Belgium. For more information visit www.rippledown.com. To find out more about the work of The Bay Trust, go to www.baytrust.org.uk
