An education in the outdoors

To be in the outdoors doesn't require that you are involved in Scouting in one form or another and here we have the Third Year (aka Year Nine) at a UK secondary school out on a walk in the woods.

Personally I can recall going for walks at school in the forests with proper hiking boots and thick woolen socks on as well as just going into a park or along country lanes outside of the classroom academic study because it was about developing the whole you as a rounded individual.

The boy second left is correctly dressed because his short sleeve shirt and shorts will allow air to circulate and provide good exposure to the vitamin D properties of natural sunlight while looking tidy which as he's representing his school is important

Tracksuits are fine for keeping warm in for P.e. and Games but really aren't good for this and to be honest I don't feel a blazer is necessary and I add I absolutely detested long trousers not least because in the summer I was way too hot.

Personally I feel schools would do better to spend more time outside of the classroom working with natural wonder and creativity to deliver the normal curriculum.

The school trip

Few things can be as enjoyable as a school trip in the countryside not least when you have views like this in South Africa as this extremely well turned out pupil of Hoerskool Die Wilgers to look out upon in glorious sunshine.

The Geography Field Trip was always something I looked forward to as a boy, a desirable perk of opting to study it to GCE O Level even if I needed firm handling when it came to do doing coursework because you didn't just learn about climates, weather and how people live you also did practical things like learn to read maps, use compasses and identify in the field geographic phenomena, even visiting caves.

Sadly with pressure on time, a more litigious society and pushing humanities and the Arts to edges of the school curriculum, few boys and girls are getting the  opportunity to do these things.