Rainbow Research Team 2011 A Project by Year 2 Colmore Infant & Nursery School, Birmingham

Why ‘research’ ? To find out things and answer questions To help our school improve the learning environment [in lots of different ways] To help us speak and listen to adults and children we may not talk to very often To involve children in their own learning Research is part of our plan to ‘improve the school’, and is something that is very important to Colmore Infant and Nursery School

What is our research project? We are helping to develop the Year 1 outdoor area. The changes will be sponsored by ‘Friends of Colmore’ who help fund lots of brilliant projects. These are our research questions: *How can Year 1 learn literacy and numeracy outside? *How can the Year 1 learning environment be improved?

Why are we researching this? We think that the space outside the Year 1 classrooms could be a wonderful extra learning area. Children in Nursery and Reception are used to being able to play in their ‘outdoor classroom’ and really miss it when they come to Year 1. Our school is having lots of building work done to it, so this outdoor area could be changed at the same time.

What is the Year 1 outdoor area like now? At the moment there is not anything to do out there and it needs a good tidy up. The little house is just used for storage. It is dull, grey and boring for the children.

What is the Year 1 outdoor area like now? There is a stage that has been built by Wates Construction, last Autumn, but it has never been used by children for role play. The walls are plain and not colourful. It should be used more often and in a more fun way.

What is the Year 1 outdoor area like now? In the Year 1 outdoor area, some of the plants died because they didn’t have enough water and nobody looked after them. We looked in the sandpit and it was full of dirty water and mucky sand. The black mat is expensive but it is hardly ever used and it is dirty.

How does it compare to Nursery and Reception? Nursery has plants, numbers on the wall and a train to play on. Nursery have got a little play house to play in and a slide to play on. They have a herb garden to touch and smell. In the Reception outdoor area there is a construction area and a den. They have exercise machines and a role play area.

The Early Years ‘outdoor classrooms’ at Colmore Infant & Nursery School

Our project so far ….. We have started to investigate how we can make this outdoor area better. We have taken photos of what we think needs to be repaired or replaced. We visited Reception and Nursery to get some ideas, but are thinking of how they need to be different and more challenging for Year 1. We designed questionnaires for the staff, parents and Year 1 children. We have begun interviewing Year 1 staff at school, to see what they think of the outdoor space. Last week we started to look at catalogues for things that we could include in our ‘wish list’.

So far we have learned that… The area has an uneven surface because there is too much concrete. There is very little greenery for the children to enjoy. The children and the teachers are excited about using the outdoor area. We need to talk to the children about looking after the area and about our project.

Our next steps…. Carry out a survey with the Year 1 children. We are going to speak to Deb our home- school worker. We are going to plan and find resources for this area. We are going to send out a questionnaire to the parents of Year 1. We are going to monitor the work when it starts.

And finally! Thank you all for listening to our presentation. We are very excited about this project, and are looking forward to the work starting. We look forward to your comments or questions……