Memo
To:
From:
Date:
Re:
Lords Select Committee on Olympic and Paralympic Legacy
Dr Steve Tilling, Field Studies Council
July 29, 2013
Committee Inquiry into The strategic issues for regeneration and sporting legacy
Executive Summary
1. The Field Studies Council welcomes this inquiry into the Legacy of the Olympic and Paralympic
Games. Our submission focuses on the regeneration legacy, in particular the Olympic Park Legacy
and education through outdoor learning and fieldwork, and highlights the potential for the Olympic
Park to become the site for the world’s first inner-city residential field centre.
Introduction
2. The Field Studies Council (FSC) is an education charity committed to bringing environmental
understanding to all. We currently welcome 145,000 visitors every year on courses to our national
network of 17 Field Centres. These include groups from nearly 3,000 schools, colleges and
universities. Established in 1943, FSC has become internationally respected for our national network
of education centres and is the UK’s leading provider of curriculum focused field courses.
3. FSC provides informative and enjoyable opportunities for people of all ages and abilities to discover,
explore, be inspired by, and understand the natural and built environment. We believe that the
more we know about the environment, the more we can appreciate its needs and protect its
diversity and beauty for future generations. We feel that fieldwork should be a vital element of an
imaginative and contemporary education.
Information
4. FSC welcomes the committee’s inquiry into ‘the strategic issues for regeneration and sporting legacy
from the Olympic and Paralympic Games’.
5. FSC has been working with secondary schools in ‘Host Boroughs’ since 2003 to deliver urban and
environmental outdoor learning and fieldwork using parks, open spaces and built environment. A
key objective of this endeavour is to help schools better engage with their local surroundings and
stem the decline in outdoor learning experiences that are available to students, especially within an
urban setting.
6. As part of this work, FSC has a close alliance with Poplar Harca (previously Leaside Regeneration)
through the ViewTube Learn partnership. The ViewTube, located on the Greenway of the Olympic
Park, has provided an excellent venue where schools have been able to engage with the Games and
the Olympic Park through a range of school subjects (such as urban geography, science, physical
education, design technology and engineering), and regeneration issues. Since 2010, FSC has
worked with 18,267 secondary students from 222 schools (including 92 schools from the London
boroughs) to provide these fieldwork and outdoor learning opportunities.
7. FSC’s work in urban areas throughout the UK has consistently shown that primary schools are much
more likely to use local parks, open spaces and resource centres for fieldwork compared to
secondary schools. There is a precipitous decline in these active learning experiences between
upper primary (KS2) and lower secondary (KS3).
8. Surveys carried out during the FSC’s London Outdoor Science and Schools in the Parks projects, which
aimed to develop use of inner London parks and open spaces by science teachers in local secondary
schools, showed that only a minority of secondary science departments in inner London schools use
local parks and open spaces for science fieldwork, with fewer than 20% of schools carrying out GCSE
science fieldwork locally (Glackin, 2007).
9. The main barriers and issues raised by 47 secondary teachers in the FSC’s London Outdoor Science
and Schools in the Parks projects were (in diminishing order): 1) disruption to classes and other
teachers, 2) staff cover, 3) health and safety, 4) lack of access to suitable site, 5) perceived lack of
usefulness regarding the curriculum (Glackin 2007, Glackin and Jones 2012).
10. The link between outdoor teaching of academic subjects such as science and geography and a
sporting legacy might not seem obvious. However, there is substantial evidence that even moderate
levels of outdoor activity will boost the health and wellbeing of young people. Furthermore, teaching
in local sites raises awareness amongst young people of opportunities for activity, and FSC’s own
evidence in other locations shows that they will return to previously unexplored parks and open
spaces with families and friends.
11. To counteract these barriers (which are particularly acute for 11-18 year olds) there is a strong and
urgent need for a viable field centre which specialises in active and outdoor built environment
education. The University of East London carried out a feasibility study in May 2008 for such a
London Education Centre to be run by the Field Studies Council and based at the Olympic Park. It
found that:
a. There is a real need for educational field centres, particularly ones that can work with
secondary schools and can use the urban environment to inspire their young people. The
proposed centre would be the first of its kind in London, the UK and possibly, worldwide.
b. The London Education Centre would encompass FSC’s charitable objectives by providing
outdoor education experiences that would cover a wide variety of curricula and make the
links between education, regeneration and sustainable development to build capacity within
local communities, whilst also ensuring social inclusion.
c. FSC has been operating field centres since 1943; its operations are currently financially
sound.
d. The proposal to build a London Education Centre in the Olympic Park has received
overwhelming support from London schools, teachers and stakeholders.
e. The viability of a Centre arises from its potential for multiple use as an education and
residential centre for the local community, as well as visitors from around the country and
abroad.
f. FSC utilises the environment in which it is located as the subject of study and has developed
an educational offering immediately and uniquely relevant to the exploration of several of
the themes identified by government, LOCOG and other 2012 stakeholders in promoting a
sustainable legacy for 2012.
g. The Centre would add real and long-lasting value to the Olympic legacy proposition.
12. FSC currently has a Memorandum of Understanding with London Legacy Development Corporation
(LLDC) to develop the world’s first inner-city residential field centre, creating a world-leading
outdoor learning facility as part of the development of education activities in the Olympic Park postGames.
Recommendations:
 The Select Committee endorses FSC’s proposal to develop a residential field centre in the Olympic
Park as part of the London 2012 education legacy.
References:
Field Studies Council, (2007). London Outdoor Science – SGP Evaluation Summary Report. Internal publication.
Field Studies Council, (2008). The London Education Centre – A local legacy with a global impact.
Field Studies Council, (2009). New Views: Lessons learned from the London Challenge residential courses.
Glackin, M. (2007). “Using urban green space to teach science” in School Science Review 89.
Glackin, M and Jones, B (2012). “Park and learn: improving opportunities for learning in local open spaces” in School
Science Review 93.
For further information, please contact:
Dr Steve Tilling, Field Studies Council, steve@field-studies-council.org