Positive Relationships: Guardianship Scheme - Trusted friends

Celebrating its 20th birthday this year is the National Trust's Guardianship Scheme, dedicated to providing outdoor learning for children by building relationships between Trust sites and schools.

The scheme, which now has links with more than 100 schools, from nursery to secondary, forms part of the National Trust's Discovery Programme and aims to:

- foster children's understanding of nature through stimulating and practical outdoor experiences

- involve children in worthwhile conservation projects

- support curriculum work.

It also helps support the Government's 'Learning Outside the Classroom' manifesto.

When signing up to the project, staff from the school and Trust collaborate to develop hands-on education programmes, using the outdoors as an extension of the classroom. Activities range from cleaning beaches and planting vegetables to exploring rock pools and hunting minibeasts.

One of the early years settings involved in the scheme is Downpatrick Nursery School, County Down. Its children are regular visitors to Castle Ward, an 840-acre walled estate on the shore of Strangford Lough with a mansion, an 18th century mill, a farmyard, woodland, meadows and a sunken garden.

The school organises four visits over the last two terms of the year, with:

- a farmyard focus, where children meet the animals and hear a range of animal stories

- a nature walk, looking at trees and plants, and hunting for minibeasts

- a seashore visit, where children look for crabs, and a planting session, where they transfer plants they have been growing at school to locations within the estate

- a fun day, with an awards ceremony to recognise their achievements.

Head teacher Dorothy Corkin says, 'The Guardianship Scheme promotes environmental awareness, which is central to the ethos of the school. The programme provided is exciting and varied and proves that much of children's learning can be achieved outside the classroom.

'We became involved because we are an Eco School and were looking for ways to extend our environmental programme. By working with Shirley Lennon, the education officer, we were able to develop our annual visit into a more formal learning opportunity. And we'd recommend the scheme to anybody who doesn't mind getting wet!'

CASE STUDY: HOLT PRE-SCHOOL, WILTSHIRE

Holt Pre-school, in the village of Holt near Trowbridge, Wiltshire, is now working in partnership with National Trust staff at the nearby Courts Garden and using its six annual visits to introduce children to nature and extend topic work.

'We don't have an outdoor area, so going over to the Courts lets the children explore their local environment and gives them real-life, hands-on experiences, such as digging,' says pre-school leader Bridget Casey.

As well as pumpkins, sunflowers and courgettes, the children have also grown potatoes and strawberries, which they have picked and eaten. Pond-dipping is also a favourite.

Activities linked to topics have included making rain gauges and playing a recycling game. This term, the theme is 'ourselves' and 'our environment', so on their last visit, the children made collages of themselves by drawing outlines and filling them in with found objects such as straw, feathers and conkers.

'The whole scheme is mutually reinforcing what we share with the children at pre-school,' says Mrs Casey. 'For us, it's a fantastic resource. But the credit has to go to the Courts staff, as we give them our topics and they take on board our suggestions, think up the activities and make it very play-based. It's absolutely fantastic.'

MORE INFORMATION

- National Trust, www.nationaltrust.org.uk. The site includes information on the guardianship scheme; Castle Ward, Co Down; and the Courts Garden, Wiltshire

- To find out more about school guardianships, e-mail: guardianships@nationaltrust.org.uk

- Learning Outside the Classroom, www.lotc.org.uk.