April with The Outdoor Classroom

Wow! What a month it's been! It always seems like once we get back from those Christmas Holidays the rest of the year just flies by, and it really is this time around! While schools have been off for most of April with the Easter Holidays, we've been busy working around the country with some fantastic organisations and projects.

CPD Training Courses and Mapping

We've been blown away by the number of schools who've signed up for The Big League! This month we've visited a whopping 14 schools to map their site and provide CPD training sessions to teachers and other faculty. We find that getting school staff engaged in The Outdoor Classroom app themselves, exploring their lessons through their pupils' eyes, is the most valuable experience! Not only that, we've seen some of our long-time member schools using the app for their inset days this April which was fantastic to see their continued use of the app for fun training ideas!

Photo: Wellington College

Hyndburn & Ribble Valley Sport Partnership Team Building Festival

We joined Jane Johnson, SGO & Partnership manager for Hyndburn & Ribble Valley, in a fantastic team building event for her member schools supported by Young Leaders from Accrington Academy. With twelve schools in attendance, the children didn't let the overcast sky or the muddy ground slow them down! Two team building games, a scavenger hunt and a huge orienteering course later, we were absolutely in awe at the energy, resilience and tenacity of the participants.

Photo: Hyndburn & Ribble Valley Festival

The Big League

Of course, we had to mention The Big League, which finally kicked off this month! If you don't know about it yet, we've teamed up with British Schools Orienteering Association and British Orienteering to host our first ever national competition for schools. This competition is entirely free to join and participate, and even comes with an extended free trial of The Outdoor Classroom app so schools can participate for the whole duration! We're excited to offer some incredible prizes, generously donated by our sponsors, and are working hard to challenge schools to get more active and make outdoor learning even more rewarding!

If you'd like to find out more about what we do, visit our website or contact our outdoor learning experts for more information.