Outdoor Learning

 At St Anne's CE Lydgate we recognise the rich potential of our outdoor spaces, within the school and importantly outside the school, to enhance our curriculum and really personalise it, to reflect who we our and where we fit into a larger community.

The area of Saddleworth provides opportunities for tangible learning experiences. We visit Castleshaw at Delph, to learn more about the Roman's impact upon Britain and how they lived, utilising the Roman Fort situated there. In the same area we undertake mapping skills, working with specialist staff at the Castleshaw Centre, to extend our Geography experiences and add real impact to the skills acquired in this curriculum area.

In year 5 the children undertake a Ghyll Scramble in a ravine near to Dovestones reservoir in Greenfield. The children also participate in a Star Walk, weather permitting, during the dark nights, where we are accompanied by expert astronomers from Todmorden Observatory in Rochdale. Equipped with headtorches and telescopes, our Space topic learning is brought to life with these purposeful experiences.

Dovestones and the surrounding areas of Alphin and Alderman provide a backdrop for local folktales and folklore, with tales of boggarts, nutnans and faeries; to bring to life our learning in English. 

The landscape itself presents a wonderful canvass to develop art skills, potentially enhancing drawing/ sketching, painting and sewing skills.

Uppermill provides the backdrop for the mighty Industrial Revolution with its canal and viaduct, to accompany our historical investigations during the Victorian period. There is also the famous Standedge Tunnel, the longest, highest and deepest canal tunnel in the United Kingdom; cutting through the Pennines into Marsden. Uppermill also provides a museum where children learn about local customs such as Morris dancing and the Rushcart Festival.

In the stone quarries above Uppermill, from which the stone was used to build the original local properties, we go back in time for our Stone-Age explorations. We see the tools that would have been used within an encampment and discover, and have a go at creating cave drawings.

Younger pupils explore the local Lydgate area, looking at old and new houses and comparing how we used to live with their experiences of today. They explore Lydgate church and the original Lydgate school house, the predecessor to our school today.

We consider our curriculum as evolving and the uses of our local area are far from exhaustive. As we explore and learn together, we add opportunities to the children's experiences, making learning real and tangible.

Within the school grounds, we utilise spaces for all curriculum areas, incorporating our learning spaces for other learning possibilities including: gardening, outdoor cooking, pond exploration and wildlife observations. The document below presents the evolving opportunities that we consider as we move through the academic year.