Page 8 - Copy of Climate Change and Sustainability Education report
P. 8
School trips are important for ALN learners but difficult to organise. Trips are widely
praised by ALN teachers for their ability to engage learners, to help learners remember
what they have been taught and for allowing them to access places they often do not get
to experience in their home lives. Currently, trips are difficult to organise, generally due to
the time spent ensuring locations are suitable for ALN learners. This organisation can
often lead to delays, missed trips and teachers planning outside of working hours. In order
to improve the ease of planning these vital experiences for their learners, a list of ‘tried
and tested’ places would be extremely beneficial.
“you look at the Curriculum for Wales…there isn't an
awful lot of guidance for our children who are working
way below progression steps…what are the early skills of
sustainability...but it's also as well for knowledge for
teachers - what does that mean for children with our
level of learning? How does it translate, what can you
do? Because lots of this, we are having to work really
hard to bring down, down, down, down because it’s not
even at the lowest level that’s in the curriculum, it’s
way, way lower than that”.
2.1 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR BANK OF RESOURCES
Layout: Create resources that are easy to modify and use without too much preparation.
Organise resources by progression step, rather than by age, ensuring content remains
emotionally supportive and accessible, particularly for learners working at pre-
progression or routes for learning levels.
Break activity resources down into chunks: Teaching staff in ALN settings will need to
adapt activities and resources for their class, and even for individual learners in some
settings. Therefore, having resources that are easy to modify and use without too much
preparation is key. The timescale that learners are willing and able to concentrate on a
task varies per setting, class and learner. Therefore, arranging activities into adaptable
“chunks” rather than time-framed lesson plans will allow teaching staff to easily pick up a
resource with minimal preparation and frame it in a way that best suits their learners.
8

