Learning & youth development

We're going to go to the canal and we're going to explore.

So one of the things that we want to do at school is we want to take the children to local activities. We found that this would be the perfect opportunity for the children to get some local geography, learn some local history as well and understand a bit of the local science as well.

I think the most important thing is they get out of the classroom. I think they get an understanding of the world around them. I think they see things that they wouldn't necessarily see.

I'm most looking forward to seeing the wildlife because they really like animals.

We've got children that were talking about the engineering of the canal, talking about the biodiversity, tapped into lots of children's individual interests, which was really great.

The most interesting thing I found out today is how the water flows and where it comes from.

I also learned a really interesting fact today that the female mallard duck had to be brown because its nest was on the ground and they need to camouflage or the predators would get them.

We live in an age where there's lots of screen time and I think hands on learning is really important, especially these abstract concepts that we teach in the classroom become a lot more concrete as we take them out.

Well there's a lot of medical evidence now isn't there, that says being by water improves your mental capacity and I think that's actually quite a healthy thing for young people.

It makes me feel calm and relaxed.

It makes me feel calm and happy that these animals have a place to live and they're safe.

I think it really shows that learning is not confined to the classroom, that a lot of the most important experiences that a child has actually outside the classroom. Seeing the lock opening closing with the children being involved, I thought that was great because again you're not going to have the opportunity to use that key, open it and then shut it. It was great.

So the best bit is when I had to open the lock, Anthony told me it weighs 1.8 tons.

It wasn't that heavy because other people were doing it with me and it was really fun. And I loved looking at the nature and learning about this canal.

We went around the whole thing and these two boys came up to it and they said, do you know what? We didn't know this place existed. We've had the best time ever. This has been the best school trip I've ever done.