ALPINE Project Officer Charlotte Repton reflects on the first few months and looks ahead at the next steps for the After School Clubs
taking part in the project.
Since September, nine Greater Manchester schools have been taking part in ALPINE (Active Learning and Play in the Natural Environment), a pilot project in partnership with Canal & River Trust, funded by Sport England, with the aim of making after-school provisions more active and rooted in nature.
Along with my fellow Project Officers, Ella Ferguson and Cathy Shiel, I have been working alongside these schools as they try out new approaches. Through a “test and learn” process, we’re carefully observing the challenges and enablers to getting children outdoors as part of this provision. We’re hoping that it’s not just the pilot schools who will benefit from feeling more confident to use their outdoor spaces as we intend to share the learning with other schools who would like to get their After School Clubs outdoors more often.
Active engagement in the project is key, with each club having pledged to access their grounds every day throughout the year. Each school
has support from a Project Officer to deliver monthly “Wild Experience” sessions to give inspiration for their activities and provide guidance and support. Giving children ownership is an important part of the project, by encouraging them to invent new games and activities that they can do each day. They’re recording these activities so that we can create a resource pack to share as inspiration for other After School Clubs.
One of the key lessons from the past few months is the importance of keeping things simple and letting children take the lead. Schools are busy environments, and it’s easy to feel that there isn’t enough time to plan outdoor activities. As adults, our main role is to focus on the practicalities of getting outside safely. Once outdoors, children often need only minimal prompts to ignite their creativity, without the need for detailed activity plans or complex resources.
The project so far has taken place at the trickiest time of year to get outdoors, with plenty of wind and rain to contend with as well as shorter daylight hours. Thanks to project funding, we’ve been able to purchase waterproofs for each school as well as other simple resources. For example, torches have been a big hit with children, enabling them to stay outdoors for longer and bringing an exciting new dimension to familiar games such as hide and seek.
We’ve now reached the stage of the project where nearly all the “Wild Experience” sessions are complete and the clubs will receive a grant of £1,500 to spend on making improvements to their grounds and buying equipment that will support the clubs to get outside. For example, this might be raised beds for growing, materials for den building or resources for wildlife exploration. The Project Officers will remain on hand to offer guidance and to drop in to see how the developments are going. Staff from the Canal & River Trust will also be visiting each club to encourage the children to use the local waterways safely and learn more about the environment beyond the school gates.
I’m excited for this next stage of the journey, to see how the clubs use their resources and newfound confidence to make the most of the outdoors into Spring and Summer, and to share the resources and learning from the project more widely when this pilot phase comes to an end.
