LATEST NEWSTCAF Demands National Curriculum Entitlement For Outdoor Education
16th September 2011
The Countryside Alliance Foundation (TCAF) has published poll results which show that 92 per cent of parents want their child to be taught in the countryside and 64 per cent believe health and safety is the main barrier to schools taking pupils outdoors. New FOI figures reveal that just 16 LEAs paid out compensation arising from accidents on school trips in 2010/11, at an average of only £300 per authority. The report recommends that the government make an entitlement to outdoor learning part of the national curriculum.
TCAF Chief Executive Alice Barnard said: "By creating an entitlement, it would install a duty on all schools to give outdoor learning the priority it deserves within the timetable and would focus the Government to allocate the resources needed to ensure its delivery in schools as an integral part of the curriculum."
Other recommendations in the report include making outdoor learning part of teacher training and ensuring staff are aware of the "low risks" involved in organising trips to the countryside.
It also contains a recommendation to scale back criminal record checks to ensure "volunteers who help deliver outdoor learning are not bogged down by overzealous bureaucracy, which does nothing to protect children".
TCAF's chief executive, Alice Barnard, said: "For many of our children the countryside remains an enigma. This is primarily because schools rarely venture outside the classroom. The message from this poll is clear - parents want their children to learn more about the countryside, in the countryside. Our polling shows parents dismiss the health and safety fears that are often the major factor holding schools back. It is time the compensation culture myth is squashed and our children are given the freedom to learn about the countryside. The Government should lead from the front to tackle the myths and fears surrounding risk in outdoor education and inspire teachers to make wider use of the countryside as a classroom."
