Curriculum for Excellence offers opportunities for all children and young people to enjoy first-hand experience outdoors, whether within the school grounds, in urban green spaces, in Scotland’s countryside or in wilder environments. Such experiences motivate our children and young people to become successful learners and to develop as healthy, confident, enterprising and responsible citizens. -- Curriculum for Excellence through Outdoor Learning, LTS, 2010

At Active we have always encouraged and motivated students to succeed and have always supported and praised them in their endeavours. They usually leave here inspired and confident in their new-found abilities in a range of activities, some physical, some not so. To our mind these are the outcomes to which the Government documentation is referring.

In addition to the activities which form the skeleton of our courses, we flesh out the experience with additional input, at the start and end of each day and throughout the activity session, either with environmental information or with personal and team development ideas, all of which can be referred back to learning outcomes, many of which the young people keenly grasp as part of what they see as a positive, challenging, inspiring and fun experience. Such life lesson often form a significant part of what they take away from their residential and which may stay with long after even their school days.

"Outdoor learning experiences are often remembered for a lifetime. Integrating learning and outdoor experiences, whether through play in the immediate grounds or adventures further afield, provides relevance and depth to the curriculum in ways that are difficult to achieve indoors." -- Curriculum for Excellence through Outdoor Learning, LTS, 2010

Active has always relied on their courses ‘speaking for themselves’ in terms of educational outcomes. However, the increasing levels of accountability expected by the new curriculums may lead you to want a more tangible set of results, either perhaps a diary or a set of more formalised outcomes related to the CfE.

For further information about ‘Outdoor Learning’ please see: www.ltscotland.org.uk