Adventure
education
– Ofsted report
The report specifically
focuses on outdoor education centres. Her Majesty Inspectors seek to find in
schools good practice and unique contribution to enhance personal and social
development in pupils through Adventure Education and for pupils to embrace
different outdoor activities. In schools they try to do a variety of outdoor
and residential visits, field work, outdoor pursuits and outward bound activities.
Reports by HMI reported that in variety of settings, in school grounds, daily
visits to outdoor educational centres and residential sites promotes a diverse
learning environment. The qualities and range of activities that are available
to promote learning are FAB!
Main
Findings
Outdoor education gives
depth to the curriculum and makes an important contribution to student’s
physical, social and personal education. Not all students benefit from such
opportunities. Generally the quality of teaching in both outdoor education and
school based settings are good. The weaker teaching sites focus on the activity
itself rather than what the activity contributes to the students learning. This
weaker teaching can be seen in school base settings and is often due to
limitations in either accommodation, resources or the teachers own insecurities
in subject knowledge. The quality of
teaching in outdoor centres can be seen better in a small based environment
because of small group sizes, teacher specialist knowledge and their ability to
change tasks to adapt and challenge appropriate students. Outdoor centres give
students a good opportunity to engage in self- assessment however any other
assessments such as an exam is not suitable as overall outcome of the students
is due to personal and social development.
