Schools
will tell you that there is a lot more to their work than league
tables and brief visit from OFSTED.
Education
isn't a football match and there are loads of hidden extras than
can't be measured.
The
way the forest garden works is also hard to measure. Yes 4 pupils who
struggle academically are the latest to receive accreditation from us
in the form of OCN level one in woodland skills.
One
of these pupils spent a lot of time making a handmade hawthorn Harry
Potter wand. This gave him a basic understanding of plant and tree
growth, eco systems and sustainabilitywhile learning about safe use
of sharp tools and green woodworking techniques. Making the wand also
encouraged him to read all the Harry Potter books!
One
of the lads has one to one mentoring every Thursday. He has visited
museums for the first time and can now swim!
Thanks
to funding from Eleanor Hamilton two lads have been taken fishing and
then out for lunch as a thank you for all their hard work throughout
the academic year.
That
might not be a big deal for pupils whose parents can afford these
treats, but they are a big deal for those that can't.
How
do we measure lunch times or workdays with our eclectic mix of
people, when our pupils muck around with our young lads with learning
difficulties. When one told us that he no longer would make fun of
people with disabilities. How do we quantify that? Surely just eating
lunch together isn't educational is it?
Carly
North, our chef on a Friday, runs a youth community cooking group.
Her work with Brighton Aldridge Community Academy meant that two
pupils who had done her food hygiene course went to Strawberry Fayre
for 4 days cooking for festival crew of up to 450 people! Two of her
pupils also helped with some of our summer scheme, help her with a
primary school cooking club and thanks to a burgeoning portfolio now
has a job in a cafe at the weekends. One young lad with Downs has
also been helping cook pizzas for a shed team-building day and our
summer scheme.
This
immeasurableness doesn't mean that they don't learn, that it isn't
worthwhile, but these extras are what we feel makes our project
really work. Still, don't listen to us, listen to what some of our
young adults think.
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