Location:
Neath Port Talbot
Funding amount:
£72059.00

Project description:

This was a project to provide Outdoor Educational (OE) programmes especially for disengaged and young persons that included nationally recognised qualifications. This took place in Glantawe Riverside Park, Pontardawe a 25 acre Community Park administered by Pontardawe Arena, a registered charity. The project experienced a slow start due to end users reluctance to commit - but as the positive results of the project became known, resulted in a greater demand for (OE) than we could satisfy. These programmes provided resource and a location that the normal school system could not.

For the first two years of programme delivery it became apparent in that we were dealing with a demographic already experiencing behavioural problems. We were successful in this time in our objectives of changing behavioural characteristics and delivering qualifications, however further research indicated that early intervention in primary schools, where children as young as 5 were being categorised as disengaged, could yield more positive results.

We were successful in Year 3 in gaining an extension to the original programme, in order to explore this further. In this year, we have delivered programmes with four primary schools, two of which were with complete year groups where we piloted programmes based on inclusivity in order to reduce class segregation.

What will the project achieve?

It fair to say that we have exceeded our expectations regarding our initial objectives:

  • We have achieved national level 2 qualifications with young people in Secondary Schools where they were not expected to achieve any.
  • We have engaged young people in enterprise projects where they researched and completed building and manufacturing projects using recycled materials
  • As a result of taking part in our programmes, individuals have returned and are passing on skills learned to others.
  • We have an expanding volunteer team that are contributing to the park upkeep while gaining valuable transferrable personal skills.
  • We have identified most appropriate Agored Cymru qualifications and have successfully embedded these in past and future programmes.
  • The parkland has been maintained and developed to ensure a mixed habitat that encourages visitor numbers and wildlife. We have commenced a plant identification programme where we are actively identifying and protecting rare species such as Spotted, Marsh and Gymnadenia species of orchid.
  • We have a site presence 5 – 7 days a week allowing an increased number of visitors
  • 2019 Saw the final phase in land clearance to allow natural grassland and plants to grow and be seen. We now have a beautiful parkland area that is a source of pride and pleasure to the local community while contributing positively to the well-being and education of many children and young people in Neath Port Talbot.
  • We are developing workplace skill qualifications that have helped individuals gain employment and opportunities for further education.
  • We have experienced great success in our primary school programmes, where we have piloted natural environmental contact for entire year groups over the academic year while embedding in school syllabus outcomes. Children have exhibited a positive change compared to other year groups in terms of behaviour, attendance and classroom achievement
teepee

Who are the project beneficiaries?

Secondary School pupils that have been categorised as disengaged.

Primary School age children in developing resilience and reducing disengagement

What was the result of your project?  

This was a well-managed project that started with a whimper and ended with a bang. Initial research was not borne out in early take up – the better part of year 1 was dedicated to establishing worth and increasing confidence in the processes involved using the natural environment within the schooling system. There was therefore a slow but sustained development process from early stages to current high levels of programme take-up. We have learned and incorporated our outcomes with current research and are operating at the cutting edge of embedding early intervention methodologies within the normal schooling system. We work with entire year groups from local schools to reduce dis-engagement and increase pupil resilience which is reflected in the classroom. We are also working to incorporate local schools within the governance of the programmes.

What were the challenges?

We had to educate school staff in understanding of what we actually did, as using the term “outdoor education” had embedded connotations of adventurous short term activities. A long mile away from the long-term organic developmental strategies we embedded within programmes.

Probably the initial supposition that we should provide interventions for young people already excluded from normal education. This is clearly a strategy that has some success as evidenced by other outdoor education organisations, but we realised that an extraordinary amount of effort and resource was being put by many other organisations in trying to fix an existing problem – with some mixed success. However we feel that without this initial work, we were unlikely to have developed current successful strategies.

What’s next for your project?

We are working to incorporate local schools within the governance of the programmes. 

Further project information:

Name:
Robert Clapham
Telephone number:
07787 123739
Email project contact