30th Jun-7th July
I have begun work on my next assignment which is all about risk taking and I have found it interesting to read more about how our opinions about risk have changed so dramatically in the past century. Looking at an article written for the Daily Mail by David Derbyshire about how far children have been allowed to travel really brought this home. I consider myself to be a mum who lets their child take risks as I have always thought it important. So, our son has grown up, playing in streams, climbing trees and testing himself and his own boundaries however we do not let him travel very far from home. It also got me thinking about the times in my life when I have really grown and developed, and these are times when I have travelled away from home and had to survive and find my own ways of doing things. Going off to university was one of these points, travelling the world, working abroad. These were really the moments/adventures in my life which formed and created me.
7th-14thJuly
I am still writing my latest essay on risk taking and it has been helpful to understand why it is so important for children to take risks to learn and develop. It has also helped me to think about the possible risks that might come about at Canopy Forest School and to read back through all the benefits and risk assessments and policies and procedure that we have in place. Having these really fresh in my mind is important as we head towards opening in September.
15th-20th July
Within this entry I am going to reflect on managing risks in my own teaching and learning profession. As a teacher I am used to filling out and completing risk assessments especially for school trips or outdoor days.
- What experiences have you had/are you having that you recognise had an element of risk?
School trips must be the largest element of risk that I have experienced in my teaching. Over my 20 years in education, I must have been on over 50 school trips from local walks to the seaside, to woodlands, country parks, farms, Museums, Art Galleries, Village halls, Churches, Synagogues, and other places of worship. All of these had an element of risk because of not being able to control or know all the possibilities. Being out of the school grounds and in the public domain always will add another element of risk.
- How did you know it was a risk?
I knew that taking the children out of school was a risk because I could not foresee all the circumstances or possibilities and could only cover and prepare for a few of these eg-taking first aid kits, doing risk assessments, arranging parents to come along for higher ratios.
- How did you respond to that risk?
We always responded to the possible risks by producing risk-assessments, ensuring that we had first aid kits and higher ratios of child-adults, having mobile phones and contact details with us.
- Were there any benefits from engaging with that risk?
School trips are so valuable on so many holistic levels and they bring the group of children together and consolidate all of their learning. The benefits of school trips are huge and it has been really hard not being able to engage in them for the past 2 years.
- What experiences have you had that you did not recognise the risk until the harm was done?
The only time in past 20 years that I have experienced an accident during a school trip where the risk was not recognised was during a farm visit where took a walk around some lakes and 1 child reached out to feed some ducks and fell into the water. I was able to jump in and get him and apart from being wet no real harm happened. We did have spare clothing with us so we were able to change the child and the rest of the trip continued as usual.
20th-27th July
It has been a busy end of term at school, but I have started writing my communication strategy which has been interesting. It has been good to think carefully about how I will communicate to each group of people that I will be working with, and I have also been reading the work of Simone Sinek “Start with why” which has really made me focus on why I am running Forest School club and I revaluated my website so the focus is more on the why than the how.
