SW school takes lessons outside

Clifton Park Primary School spent a day learning in the sunshine and fresh air last month for the Outdoor Classroom Day.

Edith Cowan University student teacher Kristin Cowan organised the event as part of work on narratives and dreamtime stories.

“I wanted to get an indigenous story teller to tie in with that unit of work, so I made the suggestion to other teachers to see if they wanted to be involved,” she said.

“Everybody was interested because it is in the curriculum for all the years to build on indigenous culture, so we invited Troy Bennell who came and joined us for the day.

“He took each class for a session with cultural stories from the Clifton Park area.”

Students learnt a range of subjects on the day, including art, maths and science while surrounded by nature instead of technology.

The students also took part in a football skills clinic lead by the South West regional development officer Aaron Aguis from the West Australian Football Commission.

“He came and did the football clinic for the whole school and then we had each classroom teacher choose other lessons to do outside,” Miss Cowan said.

“The majority of the teachers spent most of the day outside with their kids, bringing the education outside so all of the activities had educational value based on the curriculum,” she said.

“We also had a treasure hunt using directional language which is something the students are working on.”

Miss Cowan said they had perfect weather on the day, and received positive feedback from the students.