TTR0081

Written evidence submitted by the Field Studies Council

Response from Field Studies Council

Field Studies Council is a national environmental education charity providing fieldwork and outdoor learning opportunities through a network of residential centres and locations across the UK. We offer courses for all ages and abilities including primary and secondary learners. Many come to undertake their GCSE or A level fieldwork with us.  Our interest is in the teaching of geography, science, and biology in particular. These tend to be the subjects through which pupils experience hands on fieldwork and practical science in the outdoors.

The current situation regarding teacher recruitment and retention 

A significant barrier to delivering high quality fieldwork and outdoor science is a teacher’s lack of confidence to do so. Many of the teachers that accompany groups to our centres have themselves not experienced a lot of fieldwork through their own education or as a significant part of their initial teacher training. In addition Covid meant that an entire cohort of pupils missed out on biology and geography fieldwork experiences for their GCSE and A levels, and these will shortly be entering teacher training.

Ofsted’s 2021 research review into geography found that at the primary stage, the subject is lost, geography teaching is poor and that at Key Stage 2, there was a paucity of meaningful fieldwork. As generalists, primary school teachers may not have the subject knowledge they need to teach geography well and this suggests that ITT does not fill that gap.

Schools also face a number of challenges in recruiting specialist science teachers. Ofsted’s 2021 research review into science found an estimate that just 5% of primary teachers hold specialised science degrees.

This has a particular impact on disadvantaged pupils because unlike their better off peers, school will provide possibly their only opportunity to access these subjects and explore the natural world for themselves. Family holidays, travel opportunities, after school clubs, joining a non-school youth organisation may not be an option for disadvantaged learners. Visits to museums or aquaria, attending science camps or science attractions are not possible. The Education Endowment Foundation found that disadvantaged pupils make poorer science progress at every stage of their education.  As a charity, we aim to help fill this gap, but our Grants for Schools programmes were oversubscribed fourfold in 2022.

If Initial Teacher Training programmes fail to ensure high quality fieldwork and outdoor science teaching, it is disadvantaged learners in particular who are at risk of missing out on a range of study and career paths that the growing green economy is currently opening up.

 

How well does the current teacher training framework work to prepare new teachers and how could it be improved? 

There isn’t a subject in the curriculum that cannot be enhanced by outdoor learning. It should and can be used to explore the arts, humanities, language, literature, and maths as well as geography and science. It can also be used to embed cross curricular themes.  Crucially, it can also help engage learners who struggle in a classroom environment.  Giving teachers the confidence and the skill set to take lessons outdoors as part of their ITT would improve both subject knowledge and behaviour management skills.

April 2023