Active Learning Partnerships

Forest Schools have agreed to work with The Preston Lodge ALPs group from January next year for 12 weeks.  This is excellent news and we would hope to have a teacher trained to lead a Forest Schools programme sometime in the next year.

We are faced with having to rethink our strategy in terms of the ALPs programme because of some disappointing news received last week.

The loss of the Community Liaison Team Active Steps outdoor education provision from  ALPs due to funding not being renewed will be a major blow.  Sally Harris and her team have done a fantastic job working with our youngsters in the past year and it will mean a re-think of our programme at the school.  I know that the team have done similar, excellent work throughout East Lothian in the past few years with many different groups of young people and their provision will be sorely missed.  A great shame.

I’m not sure where it leaves us in terms of planning for next session, but as the saying goes, as one door closes…..

We are looking for new additions to our programme.  Over the next two months we will be firming up programme arrangements for our next cohort of S3 youngsters through a series of early morning meetings. 

If you are an individual or represent an organisation willing to get involved in the ALPs programme whether through providing an activity over a number of weeks or as an individual mentor please feel free to get in touch to discuss any potential input.

We are constantly striving to improve the outcomes for the youngsters as well as the content of the programme and do not consider ourselves to have all the answers so  suggestions are most welcome.

We are looking for novel ways of using the learning log concept.  A straight diary format has had limited appeal with some of the youngsters involved.  How can we improve the experience for the next cohort of youngsters involved with ALPs?

We are using Careers Scotland CV builder to create CVs for each of the ALPs students.

We are taking the ALPs programme to the Scottish Learning Festival on Thursday to share our experiences with others.  We will be in the Education Authorities ‘Learning in Practice’ area.

The new term is upon us and we look forward to taking forward the college and work experience placements for the ALPs students.  This site will update regularly the progress of the students as they work towards gaining a place in college, staying on in school, securing a job or an apprenticeship.

On Friday three of the ALPs group, Jamie, Jordan and Lee helped support the Primary 7 visit to the school.  The boys helped out with a task in which the primary 7 students had to design a tourist promotion for East Lothian, entitled “Why visit East Lothian”. 

This presented another challenge for the boys, as they had to step into a leadership role in supporting the younger students.  I am pleased to say they acquitted themselves well and I am confident we can build upon this success next year to provide more opportunities for the group to take on peer support and leadership roles.  Well done boys!

Mr Smith

The Active Steps celebration on Friday was a real success and showcased the excellent work that Sally Harris has been doing  over the last few years.  I was fortunate enought to be able to give a Preston Lodge HS perspective, discussing the tremendous input we have had from Active Steps this year in particular. 

The Active Steps Lottery funding runs out this August so we hope that they manage to get money from another source to keep the valuable work going, it would be a terrible shame if it was all undone because of a lack of financial backing.

Two of our ALPs group, Conor and David, came along to represent the PLHS ALPs programme and were great ambassadors for the school.

Mr Smith

A Celebration of Active Steps work this year.  I will have the pleasure of saying a few words on behalf of the ALPs programme.

B Smith