Teacher Training and CPD
The OEA team are providing a range of teacher education, through the Oxfordshire Teaching Schools Alliance, the Oxford Education Deanery, at Wytham Woods, and in schools.
Nature Education
We run nature education sessions for educators at Wytham Woods, in schools, and most recently at the Oxford University Department of Education. Here are some of the Department of Education staff trying out the resources created for the PGCE teacher trainees. We train people in how to introduce teens to nature, how to use identification resources and smartphone apps, how to find invertebrates to look at, including using moth traps and pitfall traps, and how to manage safety and behaviour outdoors.
Geography
Working with the Oxford University Department of Education we have developed and delivered a full day teacher training workshop for their Geography PGCE interns. The workshop connects with many elements of the GCSE and A-level curricula, both human and physical, and upskills trainee teachers with the relevant knowledge and practical skills for for carbon cycle and water cycle fieldwork. We also look at behaviour management, risk assessment, safety and wellbeing. And we consider NEA coursework options, and EPQ opportunities.
Outdoor Education and Wellbeing
The aim of our teacher training and PD workshops are to equip teachers with the confidence, knowledge and enthusiasm to take groups of students out into their local British woodlands. We can demonstrate the opportunities for fieldwork and other activities, help you tackle students’ questions, and learn to manage risk and behaviour. We can offer general skills development for teaching outdoors, and specific curriculum related workshops for relevant subjects.
“The normally naughty kids tend to stay close to you because they are way out of their comfort zone.”
Biology
We have also designed a day for Biology trainee teachers which looks at the type of fieldwork they can do with their classes in UK woodlands that links with the GCSE and A-level curricula.
literature, Art, Drama, anthropology
The Wytham Woods writers, poets and artists are always keen to share their enthusiasm in taking their skills and practice outdoors. We can provide workshops to meet the needs of teacher groups, or teachers with their students.
Greening school grounds
We are running a project with local schools to help them increase the value of planting in their grounds for pollinating insects. As part of this project we are offering a half day workshop for teachers and school managers and grounds maintenance staff to learn more about how to enhance and maintain school grounds to benefit both the pollinators and the wellbeing of children and staff.
And in collaboration with the wonderful educators at Longmead Meadow, which neighbours Wytham Woods, we have created a half day workshop for teachers going into more depth on trees and hedgerows - their value to biodiversity and the wellbeing of children and teachers, where to put them, and how to maintain them.
If you are interested in some teacher training or professional development for yourself or your colleagues, please get in touch and we can put something together for you that meets your needs.
Enquire by emailing kim.polgreen@admin.ox.ac.uk