Visit Leader and Visit Coordinator Training

NExcurisons Building the Curriculumew dates for Visit Leader Training (VLT) and Educational Visit Coordinator Training (EVC), for Midlothian Educational establishments have been added to learnPro and are now available.

These courses cover all you need to know about leading,planning and coordinating an educational visit and will follow the Midlothian Council Guidelines and the  Going Out There – Scottish Framework for Safe Practice in Off-site Visits.

More information available at the links below;

Visit Leader Training (VLT)

Educational Visit Coordinator Training (EVC)

 

Climb to Confidence

imagesCAUFNVW9A successful and exiting morning climbing at Ratho Edinburgh International Climbing Arena last week with a great group of students from PAVE (Programme for Alternative Vocational Education). We are using the NICAS (National Indoor Climbing Award Scheme) to measure our success and achievement in this programme as we continue to climb over the next few weeks working through level 1.NICAS

Some great bouldering, belaying and climbing going on and we hope to develop confidence and resilience through this programme. This will also include completing L1 NICAS and completing an SQA improving wellbeing unit. You can see more information on the NICAS scheme here.

Outdoor Evidence – Education and Culture Committee – Scottish Parliament

This  is a video link for the recent meeting held by the Education and Culture Committee on the 12th December 2013. As members of SAPOE Midlothian Outdoor Learning submitted evidence (can be seen in the agenda papers) to support the SAPOE chair. We were also fortunate to have excellent representation by Christine Anderson of Beeslack High School Midlothian.

The evidence and discussions support much of the issues we submitted in our evidence to the Panel, such as the work outlined by SAPOE Chair Nigel Marshall on  “enabling outdoor learning” and help sets the agenda for Midlothian Schools and communities developing a more cohesive approach to Outdoor learning and outdoor education.

There is also an excellent discussion and evidence to support the value of outdoor education throughout the subject areas and the relationship between them i.e. interdisciplinary,  as Professor Higgins notes on the use of outdoor space and progressive outdoor education experiences;

 ” …the kids can learn not just about the subject areas, but the way in which they join up”

We are looking forward to tackling some of the challenges ahead for the Midlothian learning community and it’s approach to Outdoor Learning and Outdoor Education (one and the same!) and enabling as an Outdoor Learning team to provide;

Relevant, well planned, high quality outdoor learning opportunities for all our pupils, that contribute to outcomes and attainment across the curriculum subjects enabling learning behaviours that can contribute to successful lifelong learning and positive destinations.