OLA-Garden International sCHOOL-50480-05/Nov/2024

The mission statement and handbook included here look great but they don't actually show impact. The info provided on provision refers to student feedback from Care Week and Camp Week - I wonder if you have some useful evaluation there for this benchmark?

Your contextual statement refers to ‘heightened student engagement’ in outdoor experiences – could you share these statistics? It also mentions that ‘the positive impact of outdoor learning on personal development is evident in student journals.’ Again, could you include a summary of that feedback?

Again, your provision (e.g. jungle school) looks amazing but we don’t have any evidence of the impact of this provision on students. For example, what impact has there been as a result of their engagement in activities related to your sustainable development goals?

Your statement notes that “qualitative feedback from surveys has demonstrated positive satisfaction levels with the condition of our premises and facilities”. You could use the relevant aspects of that feedback here - i.e. anything that relates specifically to your outdoor provision.

You note that “students demonstrate high safety awareness” – how do you know this? See also examples in the guidance - you could ask pupils for feedback on their outdoor learning experience, showing the impact of being/feeling safe when learning outdoors. Collect staff feedback about how prepared they feel to work safely in the outdoor space.

As per the guidance, you could analyse staff evaluations from training sessions to identify what staff have found useful, how they would benefit from further training etc. Or put together a case study of individual or groups of pupils showing the impact of staff training (and therefore their improved competence) – and/or statements from staff about how training has helped them to develop their knowledge and skills etc.

We do have some feedback here but it’s a very brief summary and much of it focuses on what students would like more of rather than the impact of current provision. Consider using the survey(s) this draws on to address some of the benchmarks – but do also make sure the material is relevant to the specific benchmark concerned. What did students say or demonstrate that leads you to conclude that “many respondents believe outdoor learning contributes significantly to personal development, helping students gain confidence and skills useful throughout their lives”?

The contextual statements notes that “we annually survey parents to gain insights into their views on outdoor learning” but there is no feedback from those surveys included here. Did you collect feedback from the parent workshop referenced? That would be really useful here.