Outdoor Learning
Our commitment to the wider world
We are proud of our achievements in being recognised as an ECO school and being awarded a Green Flag, with distinction, for all our efforts. Working closely with the Eco Schools programme enables us to provide our children with opportunities to tackle the ‘big environmental issues’ in a more manageable way. Every year the team of Eco Warriors choose three areas to focus on and drive the change through whole school and community events as well as in school projects and assemblies. We have welcomed visitors from organisations such as Climate Ed, WRWA and Blue Marine Foundation to run workshops and talks for the children across the year groups. In addition, during careers week, we have been mindful to invite visitors who have a link or are in a ‘green career’ such as an Ecologist, a Marine Biologist and even a Primatologist. This gives the children an opportunity to ask questions as well as feel empowered to make a difference in their school, their local community and beyond! We believe that by empowering our children today, they will be instrumental in driving the change in the future.
Outdoor Learning
At Earlsfield Primary School, we are in a unique position to have a fantastic Biodome that sits proudly in our main playground. This has served as a wonderful learning opportunity complimenting many areas covered within the Curriculum as well as a great opportunity for children to see where their food might come from. Every year we ensure that each year group has a chance to plant a food crop and care for their plants until they are ready to harvest the produce! At this point they have the opportunity to sample what they have grown and have even run flash sales for our school community to ensure none of the produce was wasted!
In the Early Years the children have their own growing spaces where they get involved in planting, caring for their plants, observing growth and change over the seasons too. It provides a wonderful experience for the youngest of our children to take an interest and learn the importance of looking after the world around them.
In addition to this we are extremely fortunate to have the wonderful Paradise Coop right on our doorstep. This allows us to facilitate quality outdoor learning for the children with a trained teacher through a variety of curriculum linked workshops and hands-on learning opportunities. It is a truly inspirational place! Click here if you would like to find out more about this amazing organisation.
The World around us
As a school community we have been involved in Earth Hour, World Oceans Day, Wandsworth Climate Summit and the annual Conference of the Parties (COP) activities, amongst many others. The Eco Warriors not only ‘turned the school blue’ for World Oceans Day but they also ran a special Ocean exhibition with all the creations on display being made entirely out of recycled materials! In doing so they raised vital funds for their chosen charity, Blue Marine Foundation.
By getting involved in these Local, National and World events, the children at Earlsfield Primary School understand the importance of being Global Citizens! (‘A global citizen is someone who is aware of and understands the wider world – and their place in it. They are citizens of the world. They take an active role in their community and work with others to make our planet more peaceful, sustainable and fairer.’ – Oxfam). A hugely important quality in shaping our future generations.
