Purbeck Teachers Guide
This publication is an excellent example of what can be achieved through partnership working. It was produced as the result of collaboration between the wide range of education centres based on Purbeck and funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund ‘Purbeck Keystone Project’.
In these days of websites and emails I think there is still a place for an attractive, full colour, inspirational publication like this. The clear layout and helpful guidelines should have teachers around the country heading for Purbeck for their out of classroom learning experiences.
The area itself barely needs selling; most people will have heard of the Jurassic Coast, a world heritage site. Others may know that Purbeck has a wonderfully diverse natural history with one of the highest concentrations of protected habitats of any area in Britain. What this guide is promoting however is the richness of the educational opportunities and the quality of the support on offer.
There are clear double page spreads covering Primary study topics, Physical Geogaphy, Human geography, Life Science, History, Creative Arts and Adventure Activities. For each of these one page is given over to a branching diagram highlighting connections to the national curriculum. These show at a glance examples of the wide range of opportunities on offer although the adventure activities page looks rather thin. Towards the back of the booklet each contributing Centre gets a half page describing their facilities and programmes and giving location and contact information. Inside the back cover there is also a useful matrix summarising all this information with a location map opposite. I particularly liked the ‘Checklist for planning an educational visit’ on page 5 – this is good advice to apply in any part of the country.
I am sure this guide will prove a useful resource for teachers wishing to take groups to Purbeck, to quote Chris Packham ‘the best outdoor classroom in Britain’.
Available free to schools, colleges and community groups, email requests to keystone@purbeck-dc.gov.uk Alison Steele |