Nick Oldham, Headmaster of the dyslexia specialist Bredon School on the value of outdoor learning in developing skills, confidence and wellbeing
Albert Einstein, who was himself dyslexic, once said: “Look deep into nature and then you will understand everything better”. Bredon links mainstream education with learning opportunities that take pupils way beyond the confines of any classroom. Outdoor education is fundamental in building leadership, confidence and teamwork as well as reducing anxiety and stress levels in children.
Bredon was founded in 1962 by the then serving Lt Col Tony Sharp as an alternative military-style education for pupils who had failed the common entrance to Cheltenham College. He commanded the garrison in Worcester and was the Headmaster, as well as proprietor, at Bredon school. Outdoor learning has been in the DNA of a Bredon education from the get-go.
So convinced was he that the great outdoors offered just as much as academia within the classroom, that Lt Col Sharp quickly set about employing many of “the chaps” he had served with in the jungles of Malaya. He did this for a specific purpose as he strongly believed that the skills learnt in the military had a place in his school. Education, he felt, should be about building the whole individual. He also believed that the outdoors offered opportunities to develop, grow and nurture the individual through challenge, adventure and, at times, risk. Lessons learnt out of comfort zones on the River Severn or in the Cairngorm mountains presented just as much challenge as a difficult trigonometry question or a complex history assignment. Nearly 62 years later, this message runs stronger than ever throughout Bredon School.
Today, as well as timetabled Outdoor education lessons, Games lessons, PE lessons and a thriving CCF (affiliated to the Royal Mons, Lt Col Sharp’s former regiment), Bredon is one of the few schools in the country to have a fully operational school Farm. This is an excellent example of how to integrate traditional classroom learning with the outdoors. Farm lessons are regular fixtures on timetables throughout Key Stage 3 and beyond, where pupils can choose Agriculture and Animal care all the way up into the Sixth form at Level 3.
“Keeping minds open to new opportunities and different learning environments goes a long way to forging success and resilience”
Bredon School Farm presents a plethora of opportunities for ‘real’ maths skills, as pupils use weights and measures to calculate animal feed units and costs or work out percentages and ratios at lambing time. Science is applied in understanding the food chain, breeding cycles and genetics. There’s also a field-to-fork initiative that teaches English, Business and Marketing acumen – for instance, how to promote what has been grown and find a suitable marketplace to sell the fresh produce.
Keeping minds open to new opportunities and different learning environments goes a long way to forging success and resilience. Bredon combines traditional academic pathways up to A level with a vocational curriculum to ensure all of its pupils have the opportunity to excel both inside and outside the classroom.
Bredon School bredonschool.org
Further reading: Cavendish Education on learning to succeed
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