Froglife is calling for teachers to give their views and solutions to the obstacles that hold schools back from undertaking activities with their pupils outside of the classroom.
A new online questionnaire, launched today, is seeking teachers’ views on a number of ‘outdoor learning’ elements, particularly relating to amphibians and reptiles. The findings from this questionnaire will help shape new Froglife projects that can deliver for wildlife conservation, and that help teachers deliver sessions to their pupils that are memorable and thought-provoking.
“Frogs and newts are particularly memorable to children, and simple activities like pond-dipping have the potential to sow the seeds of inspiration that can lead to a life in wildlife conservation, whilst helping teachers deliver important curriculum concepts.” said Froglife's Jules Howard. “Our concern is that these opportunities and activities for outdoor learning are being sidelined in some schools – we’re asking teachers to provide us with their findings on the ground so we can produce projects that help tackle these concerns.”
The teacher’s questionnaire can be found here, and is open to teachers –primary or secondary- across the country.
Froglife joins a number of wildlife organisations in supporting the government’s ‘Learning Outside the Classroom’ initiative, which was launched in 2006. Although great steps have been made, and some influential organisations have done a good job of spear-heading the campaign, it’s unclear how deep the new government’s support for this campaign goes and whether the battle, after four years, is being won.
