Extending the Boundaries of Learning & ‘Learning Outside the Classroom’

Meridian Trust’s Vision for Extending the Boundaries of Learning:

Meridian Trust provide a breadth of experience through the curriculum and beyond, including an entitlement for all students to experience educational visits and other activities that enhance and extend the curriculum. This includes providing a range of opportunities for spiritual, moral, social and cultural education that instill the values of the Trust and school extensively.

Northstowe Secondary College fully embraces Meridian Trust’s vision of ‘Extending the Boundaries of Learning’ and ‘Learning Outside the Classroom’ and encourages, commits and promotes these values through participating in local, national and international trips and visits through bringing in speakers, visiting national museums and participating in many events.  We also encourage outdoor lessons in many subject areas and participate in competitions within the Trust, locally and nationally.    

Key Meridian Trust policies which identify Outdoor Learning are:  

• Extending the Boundaries of Learning
• Teaching and Learning

What is Outdoor Learning and how does this Extend the Boundaries of Learning?   

‘…Outdoor Learning is a broad term that includes discovery, experimentation, learning about and connecting to the natural world, and engaging in environmental and adventure activities. Outdoor Learning involves the transformation of knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours through direct engagement with the outdoor environment for the personal and social benefit of individuals, families, society and the planet. Purposeful experiences in the outdoors can be a catalyst for powerful and memorable learning…’ (English Outdoor Council)  

‘…Outdoor Learning can provide a dramatic contrast to the indoor classroom. Direct experience outdoors is more motivating and has more impact and credibility. Through skilled teaching, interpretation or facilitation, outdoor experiences readily become a stimulating source of fascination and personal growth…’ (Institute for Outdoor Learning). 

How do we Extend the Boundaries of Learning at Northstowe Secondary College?

Trips and Visits

Between September 2022 and July 2024, we have organised 60 different trips, taking 1,671 KS3 and KS4 students to such places as: France, Italy and Norfolk.  We have visited the Battlefields of the Somme, skied down the slopes of Falcade, Italy and built rafts on the Norfolk coast.  We have also ensured many local trips visiting Fitzwilliam Museum,  the Cambridge Colleges, London’s West End and even the Cambridge Building Society.   

We have hosted a range of internal events, from Humantopia to Artists’ Workshops, and found further ways explore and incorporate our school grounds building such things as Micro Climate experiments in geography into our curriculum and students’ learning.

Learning Outside the Classroom (LOtC)

We are proud to hold the Silver Mark for our Leaning Outside the Classroom (and we’re going for Gold this year!). LOtC is all about using spaces outside of the traditional classroom to embed learning. Research has shown that it helps students to engage with their learning when they change their environment and experiences in the ‘real world’.

Students are given the opportunity to use the school grounds and local area to look at their learning in a different context. We use the school field as an amphitheatre for KS3 Drama lessons, explore the materials used in products for DT projects, calculate the heights of our buildings using trigonometry, identifying plants and wildlife as part of a Biology lessons. Sometimes it’s just using the beautiful site as inspiration for the next Art project or Geocaching around Northstowe town! We plan to build more opportunities for our students to learn around the college site and in the local community as the town continues to develop.  

Extra-Curricular Offer

We have over 42 in-house interventions, from animal assisted therapy to subject specific targeted support. We offer a wide-ranging club timetable to our students which includes: Football, Lego, Yoga & Go-Karting. We have a very comprehensive extra curricular set of activities and a list of these can be found here. We also currently have 8 local musicians offering peripatetic lessons to our students with woodwind, brass and drum lessons taking place both during and after the school day.   

Meridian Trust PLEDGES Programme

As a member of Meridian Trust, we also subscribe to the Trust wide PLEDGES programme. More information on the programme can be found here. Our aim, as is the aim of every Meridian Trust school, is for every students to have achieved their Bronze PLEDGES award by the end of their Year 9, or before.  We then expect students to progress towards their Silver and Gold PLEDGES as well as discovering more about themselves through participating in such schemes as the Duke of Edinburgh Award and the Arts Mark Award, Bronze, Silver and Gold scheme.

Celebration and Publication

We celebrate and publicise the trips, visits and outdoor learning we do through our Facebook Page and our Weekly Newsletter.

Pupil Premium Funding

We also have a very comprehensive and free offer to all students who are in receipt of Pupil Premium Funding to ensure we close the experiential gap by:

• Ensuring free participation in three free trips and year at KS3 and 1 residential trip
• Offering free music tuition

This is in line with the Meridian Trust Pupil Premium Charter, which can be found here.