After my last post I have been looking at other toy brands and manufacturers which I could use instead of Early Learning Centre, just to give me more options before deciding for certain on a brand and charity for my project proposal. All of these can be seen in my research. The Lego brand has a very strong educational program in place in which I may take inspiration from as it focuses on the mechanics of learning as well as the making and building of structures/figures. The programme is structured to be age appropriate and thus has different modules for different year groups within education. Other companies which I looked at were Hasbro, an umbrella brand for a few toy manufacturers and also Disney. The latter do not have an educational scheme in the UK but do have an existing scheme in the USA suited for 4-18 year olds.
I have also been looking at charities to link my project with. As I have mentioned earlier, I wanted to focus on a charity like World Wildlife Fund, RSPCA, or The Countryside Alliance, as these give children information about other topics and areas that they have not been privileged enough to visit or experience. The problem that I encountered though, was that every charity that I researched had an existing educational programme or strong resources available to teachers which supported the National Curriculum and were promoted well. Therefore, I was unable to produce a scheme for them or linked with them, or even re-promote/edit their existing schemes as they are already visually strong and seem to be marketed well.
Another idea, as I wanted to keep in with the theme of animals, was to look at The Galapagos Trust, they are the only UK based charity helping to conserve the Galapagos Islands. As I visited these Islands and Ecuador last summer, I have the primary photography and the experience of being there and knowing the work that is done and what needs to continue. However, after some research, this charity also have an excellent scheme for children to become young ambassadors of the Islands and they receive lots of information and fun activities to keep them interested in the charity's work.
Seeing all these charities having such educational schemes was panicking me as I was really needing to find an opportunity somewhere. I felt it was important to have an additional charity alongside the Early Learning Centre, to make the idea stronger and more interesting, allowing more persuasion to the teachers to use my scheme and be enjoyable for the school pupils.
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Another idea I have had is to link up with Safari Parks or Zoos. I have looked at the main locations within the UK, with the only one without a scheme as such being Longleat Safari Park. This is the home of BBC's Animal Park and CBBC's Roar television programmes, they offer school visits and talks at the Park but not an in-school module of work.
Another idea I have had is to link up with Safari Parks or Zoos. I have looked at the main locations within the UK, with the only one without a scheme as such being Longleat Safari Park. This is the home of BBC's Animal Park and CBBC's Roar television programmes, they offer school visits and talks at the Park but not an in-school module of work.
I have emailed Longleat to propose the idea to them, and would they (hypothetically) ever be interested in such a scheme? In other words, would it be viable in their point of view?
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