An inner city state school has bought an old race yacht...

Binman said:
+1 Here Here. We worked on cars at our school, Although we did build a canoe. We were close to the water as well.
Click to expand...


Thank you for your comments about our project. Having worked in a school for 16 years I have seen the demise of 'real' education which is offered. For all sorts of reasons outdoor education centres have been sold by councils and shut down and teachers are now under pressure to just get their stats right rather than teaching skills and providing experiences. You will all know that it is only when you actually 'do' sailing that the massive diversity of benefits become obvious.

Even our shake down journey from Ramsgate to Poole saw an acceleration in the real application of maths, a bit of physics, a lot of Geography and then there are the skills of physically operating the boat. Lets not even start on the genuine team work elements as well, the need to follow clear instructions etc. No other outdoor ed activity provides all of these skills in such abundance. I am a mountain bike instructor and fell runner so I would love to say that they provide these things and they do, but not as much as sailing does.

I am hoping this becomes a model for other schools to follow. Whether they buy or charter a boat is their choice, but were not going to create Mr Cameron's 'big society' by teaching youngsters to sit still in classrooms!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top