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June 09
The Outward Bound Trust gets top marks for outdoor learning
The Outward Bound Trust centres in Ullswater and Howtown have shown themselves to be at the top of the class for residential educational visits, after they were awarded a Learning Outside the Classroom Quality Badge for adventurous activities.
Established in 1941, The Outward Bound Trust is an educational charity which sets out to unlock the potential in young people through discovery and adventure in the outdoors. Through fundraising activities, the charity is able to help as many young people as possible to have access to safe, adventurous experiences through which they can raise their self-esteem and realise their full potential. Three of the Trust’s four young people centres have now been awarded the badge, with Loch Eil in the Scottish Highlands being the first centre of its kind in the country to be recognised by the scheme.
The Director of Learning and Adventure at The Outward Bound Trust, Will Ripley, said: "Being awarded the Quality Badge is a real coup for all the staff here as it shows that we offer young people the type of high quality learning experiences they really benefit from. We're thrilled to get official recognition for our efforts and we look forward to welcoming as many young people as possible on to our courses, irrespective of their financial circumstances."
The Quality Badge was developed as part of the Learning Outside the Classroom Manifesto, a national initiative to ensure young people are given more opportunities to have these experiences as part of the National Curriculum in England, and the Curriculum for Excellence in Scotland. The scheme is part of the Government’s £4.5m Out and About package which, along with the badges, provides guidance and information for teachers on how to plan and organise high quality activities.
Ed Balls, Secretary of State Children, Schools and Families, said: "Educational visits are among the most memorable experiences in a child’s school life. Quality Badges offer teachers a guarantee that not only is a venue providing the sort of educational value that they can build on in class long after the visit but they also have the appropriate risk management structures in place."
"The Quality Badge should ensure that many more young people have memorable, exciting and valuable learning outside the classroom experiences."
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For more information contact 01931 74000.
Notes to Editors: The Outward Bound Trust:The Outward Bound Trust is an educational charity, established more than 65 years ago to boost personal learning and development through a programme of challenging activities in the outdoors. The Outward Bound Trust is the original and leading facilitator of experiential learning in the outdoors.
The charity runs courses and expeditions in the UK for young people aged 10-24. Courses last from 3 days to three weeks
( www.outwardbound.org.uk). Outward Bound for young people is delivered at four residential centres across the UK – Ullswater and Howtown in The English Lake District, Loch Eil in Scotland and Aberdovey in Wales – and through the Metro project (urban) in Glasgow and Scotland’s Central Belt.
The Outward Bound Trust also facilitates Apprentice Development and currently works with some of the UK’s largest companies on their apprentice programmes.
In 2008, 27,000 young people benefited from an Outward Bound experience. Almost a third of these participants were financially supported by bursaries raised by The Outward Bound Trust through private donations and in conjunction with its corporate partners, as part of the Patron’s Company scheme.
The charity also works with volunteer groups across the UK called Outward Bound Associations, whose members have mostly experienced Outward Bound®, and they source participants from local schools in their areas and help fundraise for their courses. These volunteers include Youth Reps, fresh from their Outward Bound® experience, who provide advice and support for other youngsters (see
www.myspace.com/outwardbounduk). The organisation runs a professional training and development centre for adults at Eskdale in The Lake District, called Outward Bound® Professional.
The Quality Badge:The Learning Outside the Classroom Manifesto was launched in November 2006, making eight specific pledges to expand access to educational opportunities outside the classroom for all 0 to 19 year olds.
The Quality Badge brings together a number of existing schemes that cover safety primarily; puts the emphasis on the quality of teaching and learning provided (of which risk management is a part); and offers a quality standard for sectors that hitherto have not had a scheme at all (e.g. museums and galleries, field study centres). The first badges were awarded in January 2009, with the new Council for the Learning Outside the Classroom acting as the awarding body Organisations can register online at: www.lotcqualitybadge.org.uk/
The Quality Badge is available to all organisations providing learning outside the classroom experiences. There are two routes to the Quality Badge – the route an organisation takes to achieve the Quality Badge will be determined by the degree of risk management required to manage the activities offered.
Route 1 is for those organisations whose activities are considered relatively low-risk, such as environmental centres, art galleries, museums, visitor attractions and places of worship. Organisations applying through Route 1 will need to complete an online Self Evaluation Form to demonstrate that they have met a set of quality indicators; a sample of organisations will receive a quality assurance visit from a Quality Badge assessor.
Route 2 is for those organisations whose activities require a degree of technical knowledge and experience that are beyond the lay person, such as ensuring children are operating safely on a high ropes course, around livestock and farming equipment, or when entering rivers to make measurements. Residential and overseas visits are also included in Route 2, due to the unique risk management issues they present to teachers.
Providers proceeding through Route 2 must meet the same quality criteria as Route 1, but will also be assessed by the relevant awarding body. This is to ensure that they meet the quality indicators and have adequate safety management systems in place. There are five Route 2 awarding bodies: Access to Farms (ATF); Adventure Activities Industry Advisory Committee (AAIAC); Field Studies Council (FSC); School Travel Forum (STF); and Expedition Providers Association (EPA)
For more information about the Learning Outside the Classroom Quality Badge, please visit www.lotcqualitybadge.org.uk
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