Good Teaching

Hi Brenda,

I bet your daughter was dumbstruck - I know I would have been!  Although I don't expect everyone to have a keen interest like we do here in birds and wildlife but a vague interest and knowledge wouldn't go a miss.  

Although I know not everyone can afford to take their children out for days out to see wildlife, pointing out a House Sparrow or a Blackbird on the way to school would kick start a possible lifelong interest.

There's a big wide world beyond the Playstations and Xbox :o)

I heard on my local radio station that children are going to school early in the morning so teachers can take them out bird watching which I think is brill,I know kids can study wildlife as part of there GCs exams but this story cheered me up.I would like to know what you think?

 

john.

I co-run a hugely popular after school Eco club at my daughter's primary school ( with a brilliant teacher). We are a WEx group ( I am the WEx leader) and we do loads of fora and fauna ID, including ( of course ) BSBW..and at least one class also did the BSBW as well..

We won a Woodland Trust Gold Award last year  for all the improvements we have made to the school environment since the club started in 2006, we go on regular nature walks, the school runs Forest School sessions, I also teach organic gardening to the whole school in Spring and Summer terms, and we have a very thriving organic veg garden as well as nectar bar flower beds and seed beds for birds. We have put up loads of bird nest boxes, also bat and hedgehog houses and we make insect and bee houses at Eco club.

Eco club is so popular that we have to run 2 duplicate sessions a month to get everybody in! Yr 1 - 6 are welcome to join and about a quarter of the school  are members.

As well as all the volunteer stuff I do at my daughter's school, I work as a freelance Environmental Educator and Forest School Leader, teaching a huge range of subjects from recycling, to bird related stuff, to composting ( I am also a Master Composter)...I have my own Forest School site in my own wood and so my own BGB had a lot of different birds, as you can imagine!

I spent this morning running a recycled paper workshop at a primary school, which was enormous fun!

 I love my paid work and my volunteer work, I can't think of a better thing to be doing than sharing all the stuff I know about, with children. 

So some parents DO actually do stuff with children...and some schools DO really make an effort ....

but I agree it should be a part of the curriculum that chiildren learn how to grow veg and ID various birds and animals and plants.

Hello Compostwoman, lovely to hear from you and hear of all the work you do with the children.  You really sound so enthusiastic that it must transfer to the children and that is why you have such a great attendance record. Congratulations on your award.