Since starting my NQT year in September I have been passionate about discussing and debating 'big ideas' with young children, and exploring effective ways to give the youngest of minds a voice. One of my successful examples is the learning I have facilitated through Education for Sustainability. I put my ideas together alongside Debbie Bradley (Senior Lecturer and Primary Geography Leader at Nottingham Trent University) and Peter Bevington (Year 4 teacher, Nottingham). As a team we presented our teaching ideas at the Geography Association Conference in April 2011. I then presented my work at TeachMeet Midlands in May 2011. Thank you for everyone's support and interest in my work, I feel it's time to share this work on my blog...

My first experience of teaching sustainability came about in the first week of the Autumn Term 2. I had planned and resourced a week of work on Autumn Poetry, where children would extend their vocabularly to describe Autumn changes. To kick start this week, we wrapped up warm and went for a muddy walk along 'Our Special Lane'. Take a look at what happened...

The children were so switched on to this problem they had discovered themselves and all they wanted to do was debate this issue. I had to swallow my pride, push all of my poetry planning and resources to one side, and let these young minds lead our learning. We used the class blog to explain the problem and another teacher suggested we should make posters. The blog gave my class a voice and a purpose to write. They wanted to learn about posters, but already had a lot of ideas anyway, including putting the school logo on the posters so that people would know they are from John Davies. The class displayed their work proudly on the school gates, then took their posters home to display in their bedroom windows.

The week was magic and I have wanted to recreate this kind of learning again. I thought about what made it special and how it came about.

Plan time outside - take your class for a walk or to a park

Give them opportunity to attach to a place - let them be proud of where they live, show them why it's special

Observe children - watch what happens when playing outside, listen to them.

Present them with a change - what could happen to this special place? Maybe the park is being built on. The field will become a car park?

Debate and question - is this good thing? is it a bad thing? Listen to their ideas.

Let them decide how to voice their opinion - how can we communicate our ideas? Blogging, radio report, posters, letters

I used all of these ideas when I introduced the children to another problem. After playing outside underneath our trees, the children found a letter from one of them. I named the tree Rosy and the letter said 'It has been lovely to meet you, but this letter is to say goodbye. I'm going to be cut down". Here's the next video, watch what happened and listen to their responses about loosing another special place...

The point I've tried to make...

Take children outside.

Children will attach themselves to a place.

Present them with a change and give them a voice.

Let them lead the learning.

Any year group can access 'big' issues and talk about them

You can engage with global issues in a local place.

Please plan a walk and take your class outside. See what happens!