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Stivichall Primary School

Stivichall Primary School

Learning at Stivichall is a passport for life

Learning Outside the Classroom 

Learning Outside the Classroom 

Here at Stivichall we believe that every pupil should have the opportunity to experience a learning environment that goes beyond that of the classroom, irrespective of age, ability or circumstances.

Learning Outside the Classroom (LOtC), including school trips that bring learning back to class, curriculum activities outside in our school grounds and visitors invited into school from local higher education, industry and enterprise, all supports our motto that 'learning at Stivichall is a passport for life'.

We pride ourselves in inspiring children with challenging, exciting and different experiences to help them learn, which is why LOtC is such a valued part of our curriculum.

In 2016, as part of their LOtC Mark assessment, the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom said: ‘LOtC Mark (Silver) demonstrates that Stivichall Primary School is committed to delivering genuinely valuable learning outside the classroom experiences to all of their children and young people, and to continuing to develop that provision.’

RESIDENTIAL EDUCATION

At Stivichall we are proud of the opportunities that we offer our children to experience the enjoyable and educational benefits of residential visits. In Year 3 the children have an overnight camp within the school grounds, while in Year 4 we camp overnight at a site just outside Coventry. Our Year 5 and 6s have the opportunity to go further afield to Outdoor Education Centres such as PGL and Dol-y-Moch.

We provide Residential Education as an opportunity to learn to meet exciting challenges whilst having fun with friends away from home. Almost every child goes from the age of 8, progressing from camping on the school field to spending a week in Wales. We hope that they enjoy themselves and learn to appreciate qualities in each other that they do not see at school.

 

FOREST SCHOOL

Forest School is an inspirational process that offers ALL learners regular opportunities to achieve and develop confidence and self-esteem through hands-on learning experiences in a woodland or natural environment with trees.

At Stivhcall, Forest School is a specialised learning approach that sits within and compliments the school’s wider curriculum including promoting children’s personal development and welfare.

The ethos is shared by thousands of trained practitioners across the UK and beyond. Its roots reach back to early years pioneers in outdoor learning and across the sea to Scandinavia.


At Forest School all participants are viewed as:

  • equal, unique and valuable
  • competent to explore & discover
  • entitled to experience appropriate risk and challenge
  • entitled to choose, and to initiate and drive their own learning and development
  • entitled to experience regular success
  • entitled to develop positive relationships with themselves and other people
  • entitled to develop a strong, positive relationship with their natural world

This learner-centred approach interweaves with the ever-changing moods and marvels, potential and challenges of the natural world through the seasons to fill every Forest School session and programme with discovery and difference. Yet each programme does also share a common set of principles, aimed at ensuring that all learners experience the cumulative and lasting benefits that quality Forest School offers.

Principles of Forest School
 

Currently at Stivichall, children have an experience of Forest Schools during one term in each academic year – often this takes the form of one session per week for one half term (Year 6 have a Forest School ‘Graduation’ experience)

  • Forest School takes place within the natural environment of the extensive school grounds to support the development of a relationship between the learner and the natural world and to develop children’s awareness and appreciation of their natural surroundings
  • Forest School uses a range of learner-centred processes to create a community for being, development and learning
  • Forest School aims to promote the holistic development of all those involved, fostering resilient, confident, independent and creative learners
  • Forest School offers learners the opportunity to take supported risks appropriate to the environment and to themselves
  • Forest School is run by qualified Forest School practitioners at Stivichall Primary School who continuously maintain and develop their professional practice.