Outline & Background 

The adventure starts with the bus ride and the view from the windows as it drives out of town and into the heart of the Lake District.  These are year one and two pupils from two Barrow-in-Furness schools and they are meeting up with staff from CDEC at Rookhow, a traditional Quaker meeting place in the Rusland Valley.

The event is all about P4GC (Philosophy for Global Citizenship) and everything is designed to be a stimulus for thinking about needs and wants (from shelter to food to water).  It's also designed to be fun.

There are introductions (badges with animals on them - find someone else who ...), circle games, a health and safety briefing (thumbs up for "yes, we'll do that", thumbs down for "no, we'll keep away") and then we go outside.

A walk through a shaded wood to find ... a yurt.  Let's find out what it's like inside, who might live there, is it cool in summer or warm in winter, where in the world might this type of home be useful ...?

Collecting colours and textures in eggboxes on the way back to the hall, to illustrate what's been discovered in the way of different sources of shelter and food.  Co-operating and getting messy, to make grand designs and show them off to everyone else.

A story "from the dreamtime", complete with actions (easy enough to follow for adults as well as children) to demonstrate a thirsty, giant frog who drinks up all the water in the world and leaves the other animals perplexed and frightened.  What can they do to stop him and get their water back before it's too late?  Well, make him laugh, of course.

After the outdoor and indoor activities (designed to cater for a range of learning styles as well as to be fun and stimulating) and lunch, of course - the thinking and "community of enquiry" (dialogue in a circle).

For anyone not familiar with Philosophy for Children (P4C), it's a methodology designed to encourage deep and reasoned thinking and it's acknowledged to grow listening, speaking and reflective skills (see www.cdec.org.uk for local courses and www.sapere.net for the national accreditation body's site).

Philosophy for Global Citizenship (P4GC) is a version of P4C that CDEC promotes as part of embedding a global dimension across the curriculum.  For CDEC, thinking critically is an essential skill for a global citizen - such that pupils question their assumptions, and challenge generalisations and stereotypes.

Simply put, in P4C you start with a stimulus, think about what it brings to mind, discuss and agree on (vote for) a question and mull over it as a group, with the facilitator helping the group to dig deeply, elicit reasons, question assumptions and search for clarity of thinking.

So, what does the visit to the yurt or the story about the greedy frog inspire in our 5 to 7 year olds?

The question that young children (or adults for that matter) start with (in a P4C session) is not always overtly philosophical - but the ensuing dialogue can still be so.  Here's an extract of how the dialogue progressed with one group:

Is the yurt a house?

• No, because it looks like a tent
• No, because it's not the right shape
• A real house has a triangular roof

What does a real house look like?

• Shapes stuck together
• Look at the attic to see if it's roof is triangular
• If your house has bricks then it is a house
• It could be a house and a yurt
• It has no telly, no chairs and no bed
• It's still a house because you live in it
• It can be any shape because my uncle lives in Canada in an upside down house
• Your house could be a tent because you can sleep in there

After further discussion based on observing a butterfly at a window:

• If you live somewhere, it is a house

So what did the pupils said they learned from their visit with CDEC to Rookhow?

• To listen to each other more
• About the new philosophy ‘thing'
• How to make pictures from natural materials
• What's a house and what's a home

And what did the teachers say about the value of P4C?

• Sharing different ideas - so thinking about things differently (year 1 teacher)

• Valuable as it develops thinking skills and children begin to consider the opinions of others (year 2 teacher)

• It is very new to me but the children really enjoyed it and came out with some great comments (year 2 TA)