Location
This course takes place here:
All Saints Primary School
Fulmodeston Road
Stibbard, Fakenham
Norfolk NR21 0LT
A course of 12 training days over a 12 month period based nr Fakenham
This course takes place on the following dates:
This course takes place here:
All Saints Primary School
Fulmodeston Road
Stibbard, Fakenham
Norfolk NR21 0LT
The course has been specifically designed to extend the understanding and expertise of practitioners and teachers/TAs who have at least 2 years experience in early years practice. The course is also very suitable for those holding a nationally recognised level 3 qualification but with less experience in practice.
So as to complete the implementation aspect of the qualification, you will need to be working or on placement with children from 2 to 6 years in any private, voluntary or maintained early years setting, school or childminding service.
In general the course spans 12-14 months.
An example of a standard delivery of the full award would be one training day per month then to return to your setting to implement gained knowledge and experience. In this way you would complete a unit every month, a module every 4 months and complete the whole certificate over a 12 month period.
For Privately commisioned courses - This can be done over a shorter timescale but it is very important to allow enough time between each unit before moving on.
Employing a coaching approach, the course supports you to gradually develop a firm basis of understanding and competences in a long-term, incremental and stepped way. The structure allows you to gradually develop your own expertise across the year, providing a slow, regular and manageable approach.
Utilising a blended mix of face-to-face experiential sessions, in-person or online discussion and analysis sessions and guided study, you will be supported to work things out for yourself. Constructive observation, implementation and evaluation in your own setting’s outdoor space ensures that new understandings become embedded into your practice and are maintained. We aim for this training to work for everyone and to involve actual development of your setting’s outdoor provision and practice.
Undertaking the Certificate in Outdoor Practice will:
The qualification is content focused, incorporates active learning and supports collaboration and gradual progress. The course is:
Making a difference for practitioners and children.
The Certificate in Outdoor Practice from Outdoors Thinking has an enabling approach with the following ongoing impact and outcomes for practitioners, managers and settings:
Our course in England is accredited by Open College Network West Midlands.
Check out our FAQ page
Please park in a large car park around the side of the school building.
You will need to bring your own lunch with you due to the locality and timings of the day we ask you to bring a packed lunch with you.
Passionate
Energetic
Child-centred
I have always loved the outdoors because it gives me a sense of peace, belonging and freedom. From the age of 8 I went to a Froebel School, and we spent a huge amount of time learning in the natural environment. We learnt about plants, trees and living things that share this environment with us and how to care for them and enable them to thrive. We learnt when harvesting in the vegetable garden never to take everything to allow for seed dispersal and the next generation. I have recently read a wonderful book called 'Braiding Sweetgrass' by Robin Wall Kimmerer, and I discovered this is a Native American principle.
I only became a teacher because I was accepted onto the Froebel Institutes teaching course and the main subject was Natural Science.
There are so many, it is hard to choose but I think I will always love watching children discover something for the first time and the sense of wonder and excitement this brings. I remember a little boy at Earlham lying on his back staring at the clouds in the sky, he was watching them move and their shapes change, he was transfixed by this and stayed watching for most of the morning. Another child sitting in the willow bower on a cold snowy day and looking up and seeing the blue-sky form patterns through the willow and just said 'Wow'. Another little girl showing off her knowledge to an Ofsted Inspector who was with me saying 'Look Felicity this is a Purple sprout, it is good for you' moving on and saying 'look this is a white sprout, it is good for you' moving on saying 'look this is a poppy, it is beautiful!' Two children jumping and laughing in a puddle making waves and getting splashed and then noticing shoots of grass moving in the puddle and exciting saying 'There are fishes, look there are fishes and they are moving- lets get food for the fishes' they ran off and picked grass to throw in the puddle for the 'grassy fishes'.
I think this course is unique because it is starting from where the practitioner is at in their learning and understanding of outdoor learning. It is about the learner, taking them on a journey of discovery and opportunity in a nurturing and person-centred way. It is not delivering anything, it is inspiring and asking the learner to reflect and find out for themselves. All the practitioners learning will be different and personal to them but because of this it will be embedded in them, and this will help them to make changes in their settings. This will bring the outdoors space into a real time learning space for children whatever the constraints of the setting.
I am excited and honoured to be part of such a new and innovative training. I am also really excited to be working with such a spectacular team.
I am also enthusiastic about the possibilities of this training growing and becoming a must for Early Years Practice. For me it reflects and responds to the challenging times we are living in regarding Covid and Climate Change.
Finally I am delighted to be working with a colleague in Norfolk who was a student of mine and has developed her practice in such a way that she would not only be an advocate for this course but also an authentic practitioner for those who come on the course.
Adventurous
Creative
Dedicated
Everything it offers: The seasons, fresh air, freedom, adventure, the unknown, well-being.
I have so many but I think climbing up Priekstolen (Pulpit Rock) rock in Norway stands out.
Outdoors Thinking is unique because it is offering something that has not been offered before, a level 3 outdoor qualification, with tutors who are experiences and passionate about children being outdoors.
Sharing my passion for the outdoors with other and inspiring them to go back to their schools and settings and make a difference to the children in their care.