Transcript 

Hi it’s Carol again, we are going to talk a little bit about kits.  We go into countless schools and they spent thousands of pounds on equipment, whether that’s trim trails or outdoor planters or maybe even den kids.  Whilst there is a place for these pieces of equipment, we suggest you keep it simple to start with.

Our kit fits into a simple backpack. What this means is that is easily accessible, it’s low cost, meaning every single teacher in your school can have their own outdoor learning backpack making it easy to take classes outside, and it’s simple.

Our lessons have been designed with this backpack in mind, so everything you have and here is what you going to need for the lessons we suggest. there might occasionally be the odd exception such as clay or other resources, but generally this is what you going to need.

A small backpack. I always like to have a backpack with a pocket on the front.  The pocket means the if you’ve got children, which invariably will have, with medication in your class and they need that medication available that can go into front pocket when you go outside.

Having it in a set place means the children know where it is and is easy to grab. They have responsibility for putting their medication in, obviously are going to check it, and they know where it is.  It also means that should anybody else need to access that they know where that medication is. It is a really easy policy to give across school. Occasionally I have worked with classes that have more medication than is going to fit into the front pocket.  When that happens, what I tend to do is a have a swimming type bag that I can put the medictation in.  that then attaches to the backpack so again you know where it is, it is in a central place and is easy to access.

So what is inside the backpack. Well a lot of time we use wool and yarn. It’s great for measuring and for making things, for all sorts things.  It doesn’t need to be expensive. I tend to pick up wool from 2 places. The 1st place as pound shop and the 2nd place is from elderly aunt’s and grans and things like that they always have a bag a yarn that there looking to get rid of that they’ve not used at all in their current project in projects have finished . It’s a really easy way to get it, you can put out your parents in school to try and get some more.

Chalk is another thing that I have in there.  Again, it doesn’t need to be expensive, it can be chunky chalk which is helpful for younger kids and thinner chalk for older kids so it doesn’t take up too much space.  I tend to give groups a piece of chalk, unless there is a reason for every child having individual piece of chalk. 

You also need a laminated register.  Most health and safety decisions in school means you have to have your register with you at all times it makes sense. But, if you put a piece of paper into a bag and take it outside and back and forward is going to get destroyed and that’s not very handy for the end of the week if there is data that needs to be inputted from it.  A laminated register works really well.  You can laminate at with a matt laminating pouch, which we can write in pencil and rub it out, so it gives you that registered there and handy.

Phones, now I know various local authorities have different feelings on phones, but I would say actually due to health and  safety it is a key piece of equipment when you’re outdoors.  You need to be able to contact to school.  A lot of times when I’m teaching outdoors, I’m on my own with a class and I need to be able to contact the school in case anything happens.  But it also means the school can contact you.  If a child’s parents turns up to take them to the dentist unexpectedly the office do not really want to be traipsing all over the playground to come and get them. If they have your number handy, which I tend to hand in to the office on my way outdoors, they have an easy way of contacting you. It just makes it easy for everyone. 

I also have a camera.  It is really nice to keep a record of what you are doing.  But for some councils you may be allowed to use your phone, as long you take the photos off it at the end of the day, or you may need to use a camera.  If you can use your phone it does make it that little bit easier.

Measuring tapes, a 10 meter one is helpful and the little freebies from ikea are also really helpful. They are great for all sorts of tasks, not just maths and it is worth having.

A mini first aid kit goes without saying, you need in there.  I tend to put in that front pocket so that everybody knows where it is.

A small ball for turn taking, for talking turns and things like that makes it really nice and easy.

This is basically all we have in our kit. You can buy all of that for less than 10 pounds per class.  It’s nice it’s easy.  Even if you wanted a phone for each bag, you can pick up phones for 7 pounds or so from supermarkets nowadays. So it is really nice and easy to have all there and handy.  This is what we based our lessons on.  Once you have this kit you will be well equipped and raring to go!