Ed Sibson – Outdoor Education Development Officer
Posted by: Admin
Dated: Thu 6th March 2008 10.11AM
My name is Ed Sibson; I have recently taken
on the position of Outdoor Education (OE) Development Officer working in
collaboration with Grafham Water Centre (GWC) near Huntingdon, Hinchingbrooke
School and the Hunts Schools Sport Partnership. Prior to working at GWC I studied for an MSc in Automotive Engineering at the University of Leeds. In the summer holidays I worked as a sailing instructor in various Mediterranean resorts – sailing being my first love and favourite hobby.
I first started delivering OE at Grafham Water Centre in March 2006 when I was offered the position of Senior Instructor at the Centre thanks to my sailing background. A slight departure from engineering I hear you say, and yes it was. Fortunately, I gained so much more from my time at University than just a degree and this was to stand me in good stead. Since starting at GWC I have not looked back.
I have always been an “outdoorsy” person and the opportunity to work in the outdoors on the side of one of the best inland sailing venues in the UK was too good to miss.
In my position at the Centre I quickly
realised that there was so much more to this outdoors experience than just
trying out some different and exciting activities. It is a wonderful vehicle to
facilitate the learning and development of a whole range of personal and life
skills. From here I had the good fortune to work with, and learn from, some exceptional outdoor practitioners that enabled me to develop a deeper understanding of OE and its potential.
So when HinchingbrookeSchool, the Hunts Schools Sport Partnership and GWC got together to develop a new post to help promote and develop OE with local schools it seemed like the logical next step in my career. Fortunately for me they decided I was the best person for the job and so here we are.
An aim of the post is to develop OE
activities across the partnership using delivery in school time and to develop
activity in the wider community. It will involve team teaching with the
schools’ teachers to provide orienteering and team challenge activities and
will look to develop extra curricular opportunities. The result of this will hopefully be to
increase participation in and to raise standards for those taking part in OE. As you will probably know Outdoor and Adventurous Activities (OAA) have a part to play in key stages 1 and 2. There are three units to be carried out in line with the National Curriculum and the focus of these is to develop orienteering, problem solving and team working skills.
These activities are relatively straightforward to carry out on all primary school sites with a little imagination and prior planning. This is an area that I can most definitely help with due to my specialist knowledge of OE and OAA. I can help to design a programme to use within your school that is tailored to your resources and made site specific.
I am also on hand to offer advice and to act as a sounding board at anytime during the working week.
My contact details are:
Ed Sibson
Grafham Water Centre,
Perry, Huntingdon, Cambs,
PE28 0BX
Email: edward.sibson@cambridgeshire.gov.uk
Tel: (01480) 810521
Mob: 07939722911
Fax: (01480) 813850
E-mail this author for more information.
Recent Team Items
Ed Sibson – Outdoor Education Development Officer
My name is Ed Sibson; I have recently taken on the position of Outdoor Education (OE) Development Officer working in collaboration with Grafham Water Centre (GWC) near Huntingdon, Hinchingbrooke School and the Hunts Schools Sport Partnership.
Meet the Team
Meet the team. The Hunts SSP team is made up of a fantastic, enthusiastic team of School Sport Coordinators (SSCOs). We consist of a PDM and 8 School Sport Coordinators. The team are really looking forward to our second year and working with the great team of Primary Link Teachers (PLTs) in the Hunts schools.
