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Broads Authority Suspect Curriculum


Timbo

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I have been reflecting on what I said yesterday, about teaching children and I am set to wondering how many of you, on this forum, first came to the Broads as children, on boats? Probably the vast majority - but what did they teach you about them, at school?

In my case not a lot, although both of my prep schools were on the banks of the Yare. Timbo has since proved, to my chagrin, that what little they did teach me turns out to have been wrong, anyway! But how about those of you who come from other parts of the country? Surely they didn't teach you much about the Broads, and yet here we all are on this forum, as adults with a passion for them, as well as a keen knowledge of them.

I know there are some of you who first came here as members of organised school parties on boats and I think you will find Broadscot was one of them, in the days of Hearts Cruisers. I don't think of that as "teaching" though, as it is practical boating experience, as an adventure outing. I doubt if you would have got the same "tingle" out of a guided nature walk around the Ranworth Visitor Centre.

Perhaps this will explain why I am not in the least ashamed to be numbered among the so-called "BA - Sceptic Minority" on here, because the only way future generations will come to love the Broads as we do will be if they can still go boating on them.

National Parks have 3 legal responsibilities but the BA has four, and the fourth is the most important in this unique area. We owe it to future generations to keep the BA "up to speed" on its obligation to maintain navigation, otherwise its maintenance will continue to slide. After all, toll payers provide half their income - but what do they get out of it?

I say, we have a right to voice our opinion of their efforts, and they have a duty to listen!

 

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Where the Broads are concerned someone once wrote, and a man called Jamie Campbell quoted it, 'If you want to lead Broadlanders then find out where they are going then walk in front of them'. In my opinion a very wise observation.

Some years ago the BA wisely ran a course at a Lowestoft school, it was in conjunction with the UEA, it offered a certificate for those of us who completed it. It was then that I met Trudi Wakelin, on that occasion the tutor, at least by title. The class, of which I was one, probably all attended not so much to learn as a child might, but as an adult with an interest. I admired Trudy because the class became a mutual learning opportunity. We listened to each other, we learned from each other, we moved forward together. Trudy clearly knew less about the subject than the majority that attended but she asked and she listened, we all gained, we all moved forward. I am not aware that the BA ever held a similar course but for me it was invaluable & I gained a huge respect for Trudi and I regret her moving on from the BA.

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I knew absolutely nothing about the Broads other than they were a series of large lakes in Norfolk until we moved the boat here in 2010 and until I found this forum still didn't know much. Every important thing about the Broads I now know I've gleaned from the knowledgeable  folk on here which is what I've found so beneficial about this forum. When my husband finds little snippets about The Broads in various boating magazines he reads and recounts them to me I am now able to expand on them and tell him something he didn't know which makes a change and it's all thanks to you Forum Boffins. Many thanks.

 

 

Carole

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I first saw the Broads whilst on holiday in Norfolk with my parents when I was about 10. We went to Mundesley for 3 years running and went on one of the pleasure trips.  This started my life-long love of  the Broads. Our holidays were not geared around learning much, apart from my father pointing out all the "old roads" where he apparently drove a NAAFI van during war time in the dark with inadequate vehicle lights. (These stories may have been slightly exaggerated!)

As far as my education is concerned, I blame these holidays for about six wasted years at school, when I spent most of the time staring out of the windows dreaming of Norfolk!

 

 

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I was brought up in a little town in Scotland that had a harbour full of little fishing boats. That is where I spent most of my time and I loved it.

When I was 19, myself and 3 friends got enough money together to go to the broads on a boat from Southgates main yard in Horning (Glistening Stream 4) and I have never looked back since.

Now, I have 2 teenage daughters - 18 and 15 - who love the broads and can't get enough of going on a boating holiday.

Total relaxation, radio blaring, good food and plenty of fresh air.

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1972 the back alleys of Doncaster were my playground and my knowledge of things 'water, boat and wildlife' were limited to watching 'Marine Boy' on a Saturday morning...and once getting bitten by a stray dog. That summer we had our very first boating holiday aboard Captain XII...and things changed for the better.

Unlike Vaughan I wasn't lucky enough to attend a prep school. I attended Balby Junior School. We had some good teachers but I received most of my education at home from my Mum, Dad was away from home in the RN, who made sure I attended my first days at Junior School scrubbed, shoes polished, able to read and write and with a smattering of latin. Most of us will be familiar with the ritual of asking your parents a question and getting the 'ask your Mum' or 'ask your Dad' reply. Only in my case when you followed the instruction to ask the opposite parent they would have planned a lesson. Its only recently that I realised this was orchestrated between the pair of them. Academia was Mum's territory, everything else from diesel engines to what crops are growing in that field...Dad. So imagine if you will six year old me in Norfolk. I have a suitcase full of clothes and a small attache case that contains field guides for birds, plants, trees and shrubs, insects and mammals, a microscope, slides and specimen cases for insects. A three week holiday as Dad had left the navy and we all needed to get to know one another again.

From the 'go get' I knew this was going to be something special. Boat...a boat! A captain's hat! Watching my Dad help the guys at Brooms fit an engine into Captain XII...you see Dad got 'involved'. If we saw someone cutting reeds...Dad would be there talking to them, soon he would be having a go himself, then I would be roped in. I had an afternoon accompanying a Ranger after he and Dad got talking...oh I wanted to be a Ranger when I grew up...still do if I'm honest...want to be a Ranger...and grow up! I had my first 'brush' with Ted Ellis who had popped outside a pub, can't remember which one, and found me drawing the birds (feathered ones) around me and looking them up in my field guide...he sent me out a bottle of shandy and a bag of crisps. And so it went on, my Mum and Dad interacting with local people and local people teaching and sharing and caring about the environment. No interactive boards. If I asked Mum and Dad a question about, for example why the farmer was flipping over the hay, they would take me for a closer look and nine times out of ten the farmer was more than happy to explain...I got to ride round a pasture in Thurne on the tractor while he told me the ins and out of the...well the cows a***.

Burgh Castle...and even at six I knew something was wrong with the 'history' I was being told. A Stablesian cavalry unit on an island? A cavalry unit? On an island? It took me twenty years and quite a bit of time in Greece to finally work out what was bugging me. But 'Norfolk is as Norfolk does' someone said to me last year....no I don't know what he meant either...but having discovered the ancient history of Norfolk ...as told by many institutions in Norfolk today, the Time and Tide Museum and the BA but two of these...is so much fanciful crap I can only appreciate Bill's (Quackers) frustration and applaud his perseverance in getting the record set straight.

But yes I can fully appreciate and only applaud the Broads Authority for endeavouring to carry on that 'hands on' education I was lucky to have as a child on the Broads, so long as that education is factual and practical both.

Having worked at the sharp end with and for a number of organisations including the NT, WMF, WHC and UNESCO the infatuation of the Broads Authority with becoming the 'Broads National Park' professionally speaks to me of an organisation who does not understand the landscape and community it is there to protect or indeed the function of its own organisation. The Broads Authority has four equal obligations. Each is dependant upon the other. Funding is incredibly tight. We all accept that...but has anyone calculated the sums of money wasted spent in chasing a name? Legal fees, printing, notice boards, man hours...sorry person hours...the list is endless as will be the expenses that would be far better spent on all of the Broads Authority's four obligations.

Now I'm off to see a dog about a man!

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Tim, the luck that Vaughan & I had in going to a Norfolk prep school was in that Langley is near the Yare & Taverham is besides the Wensum. In my case I had a very wise headmaster in that for two hours every afternoon we either had sports or the freedom to roam as we pleased. Whilst I loved playing rugger & hockey I loathed cricket so whilst others played their games I freely roved the bank of the Wensum at a time when we were allowed to learn by experience, so long as we lived to tell the tale. It was a wonderful freedom for a young boy. In the evening we had 'prep' for an hour or two so we did pay for our afternoon freedom but it was a good deal. Whether Vaughan enjoyed quite the same freedom I don't know but I was exceedingly privileged, not that by any stroke of the imagination did I excel in the three R's. Taverham had a tenant  farmer who farmed acres of land adjoining the river, he was an old boy called Alec Able, a true Norfolk countryman with generations of farming behind him. We took to each other & I spent many an hour driving his tractor, an ancient Alice Chalmer or walking or fishing the river. I also got to know another old boy who owned a local gravel pit on which he sailed a National Twelve. I was also allowed to fish there and often crewed the old boy. A major something or another, in all respects a gentleman. Although a Suffolk lad my formative years were spent in Norfolk and for that I shall be eternally grateful.

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Very good Vaughan - I "liked" yours too!!!

Primary schools are just not interested in local history! It is virtually impossible to get the little kids out of the school and out to see local history - two normal excuses are given!!

 We are far too busy teaching about more important things and

The cost of getting them to you - the cost of a 35 seater coach from say Norwich to Ludham, is prohibitive and if the BA do anything to encourage the kids to learn about Broadland the latter has to be overcome - now thats a worthy cause!!!

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3 hours ago, JennyMorgan said:

Tim, the luck that Vaughan & I had in going to a Norfolk prep school was in that Langley is near the Yare & Taverham is besides the Wensum. In my case I had a very wise headmaster in that for two hours every afternoon we either had sports or the freedom to roam as we pleased. Whilst I loved playing rugger & hockey I loathed cricket so whilst others played their games I freely roved the bank of the Wensum at a time when we were allowed to learn by experience, so long as we lived to tell the tale. It was a wonderful freedom for a young boy. In the evening we had 'prep' for an hour or two so we did pay for our afternoon freedom but it was a good deal. Whether Vaughan enjoyed quite the same freedom I don't know but I was exceedingly privileged, not that by any stroke of the imagination did I excel in the three R's. Taverham had a tenant  farmer who farmed acres of land adjoining the river, he was an old boy called Alec Able, a true Norfolk countryman with generations of farming behind him. We took to each other & I spent many an hour driving his tractor, an ancient Alice Chalmer or walking or fishing the river. I also got to know another old boy who owned a local gravel pit on which he sailed a National Twelve. I was also allowed to fish there and often crewed the old boy. A major something or another, in all respects a gentleman. Although a Suffolk lad my formative years were spent in Norfolk and for that I shall be eternally grateful.

Are we going off the thread again?  Perhaps not, as we started with childrens' education.

I too have wonderful memories of Taverham Hall and we were indeed let out into the grounds, especially at weekends. One of my friends was a keen fisherman and one day three of us went across the fields down to the river (still in the school grounds) and fished for pike, in the traditional way, using pilot floats. After a long wait (and getting scared to death by a coypu) we hooked one and fought it, for a long time, until we landed it. Apparently it weighed 9 pounds and we carried it back to the school in triumph, where the cook assured us that if we would gut it and prepare it in the pantry, she would cook it for for supper. There was enough for us to invite some friends and in the end 10 of us dined on it that night. It was the first time I had tasted pike and it has always been a special treat for me ever since.

My point is that, to me, this was not "education" in a classroom or on a guided visit, as the BA seem to perceive it : this was real "hands on" experience. Boating on the Broads is the same sort of experience, for young children who, having once done it, will never forget it. We must make sure that this experience is still there, to be enjoyed by future generations.

 

By the way Peter you are quite right - Taverham Hall is on the Wensum, not the Yare. I never was much good at geography!

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Hello All,

  Growing up in London, l'd never heard of the Norfolk Broads. l knew where Norfolk and Suffolk were on the map, but didn't realise there was so much water covering so much area in those combined Counties. l was 10 when we were told we were going on a boat [instead of the usual caravan] for our holidays, and from that holiday, the whole family were forever hooked on the Broads.

  l enjoy the discussions that go on on this forum, and have learnt so much about the place from those living around the Broads, or who spend a lot of time there. Most of the time it's done in a friendly way, but if there's something l'm not really interested in, or that goes over my head, l just go onto the next subject. What might be boring for me, is interesting for many others. As far as l'm concerned, l don't mind if people do keep bringing up the same subject, that's the freedom of this forum. Maybe the silent majority feel the same way.

  l know this is going of on a tangent, but as for teaching children, [maybe it's got something to do with being older in the tooth] it seems that youngsters today are easily being brainwashed in the classrooms on all sorts of things. A couple of examples: friends of ours' 8 year old grandchild has decided to stop eating meat because their teacher has 'discussed' the vegetarian subject with the class. Our granddaughter was telling us about her geography lesson and about the Malvinas. When l tried to correct her, she was insistant that it wasn't the Falklands, it was the Malvinas and that it was part of Argentina. The Broads has a long history, why try to rewrite/rebrand it?

   A couple of times when we've been on holiday, we've seen boats with small children and teachers on Barton Broad, with their clipboards, so some children are being taught . . . but is it about the N*t**n*l P**k?!!!

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Just curious, Vaughan, was your friend who caught the pike 'Parrington' by any chance. There was also a McCalpine-Lenny who was also prone to eating pike. I well remember him bringing one back and putting in the foot-bath in the cloakroom so he could clean it and where it promptly came back to life and yours truly was the only one brave enough to tackle it. Despite the river being a 'trout water' thus we were expected to kill pike I never did, especially as the only one I ever tasted was pretty awful! 

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I discovered the Broads, both in print and in real lif as a youngster. The print came first but was rapidly followed by the practical. In print, like Grendel, it came through Arthur Ransome, and it was through his books that my interest in sailing was first awakened. Then, aged 11, I made my first visit on board Peggy, a gaff yacht with no engine from Herbert Woods.This as the first of a succession of annual trips with the Scouts over the Easter holidays, and by age 14 I was skippering a boat full of younger scouts.We would even take the entire fleet (none of which had engines) through Yarmouth to the southern rivers.


 The educational value of these trips was beyond measure and required no formal syllabus. We would learn about the Broads informally as we chatted with leaders and old hands, as we saw the environment and wildlife and set out, for our own interest, to learn more and as we picked up valuable background reading, of which the most significant was the wonderful and much lamented "Hamiltons Navigations," a source of much more than navigational information, containing, as it did, much historical and environmental background. We also learned much about life as we progressed from a "Galley Boy" who was expected to learn to sail and to cook meals for the entire boat, through "Mate" with responsibility for planning menus and supplies as well as being a good sailor that the skipper could rely on. Then it was on to Skipper. This involved full responsibility for a boat within the overall sailing plan and also an expectation to develop the skills of the other crew members. This seems to me to have been far more valuable education than any formal syllabus and was the beginning of a process that has led me to offshore race helming and navigation and instructing in yachts, sailing dinghies and powerboats. It has also built in me a deep love of the Broads, so that despite sailing in many more demanding and distant places I still return to the Broads whenever I can and in recent years I have often raced in the Three Rivers and other Broads races.

To return to Arthur Ransome, his influence went beyond the Broads. It was Ransome who inspired me to make my first forays up the Old Man of Coniston, thanks to Pigeon Post and to explore both Windermere and Coniston lakes.More recently I have explored the rivers Stour and Orwell, the starting point for "We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea" and Secret Water. This year, aged 60, I intend to follow in Ransome's footsteps again by exploring Waltoon Backwaters (Secret Water) and by making the crossing from Harwich to the Dutch coast.

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My pennyworth... Children, quite young children, are fully capable of appreciating subtlety, and different interpretations. Sadly, we. adults fail to appreciate this very often and over-simplify, so, like Tim, I will read the study materials with interest.

Education is a pressure cooker these days with crowded content and OFSTED looming. The other issue is that funding is really very tight, a juggling act to stay in the black all too often. Then there are the risk assessments required for any activity: no wonder there are fewer trips these days.

It takes a good head and brave staff to buck the trend and say, 'Let's just make time for that visit, or for reflection and critical discussion.'  Such heads, staff and schools do exist, and thrive, as their pupils in fact do well in the measurements required by HM Gov.

There are approaches in schools these days that support better thinking, and they are catching on in my experience. I meet thoughtful and articulate children in schools who are a privilege to listen to.

The contributions to this thread are, in many cases, reflective of the children we once were; sensitive to the offer the world made to us. Well, so are the vast majority of kids today, given the chance. So all power to the Broads as 'Outside Classroom' and I hope the adults involved do it right.

If you are interested, check out www.Sapere.org.uk,  or NACE.co.uk, or Thinking Schools International for a sample of some of the opportunities going these days.

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I was but a spotty youth being dragged up in liverpool, when my elder brother announced that he was going on holiday with some mates to a place called the norfolk broads. This was back in 1971 and frankly i was not impressed, for a start what was a broad and secondly where in earth was norfolk, never heard of it!  when he started to describe this new fangled holiday in a place hitherto unheard of, i started to show a bit of interest.....what you mean you actually get given a boat and you can drive it yourself and drive it anywhere and stop where you want and sleep on it and cook bacon butties on it......all rather naïve questions of an eleven year old who had never been on a boat but had frequently crossed the mersey by ferry.

Needless to say when he returned from the broads my questioning was incessant, where did you go , why, when, did you crash it, what sort of engine did it have ( yes even back then i was fascinated by all things mechanical and was an avid user of meccano ), what did you eat, where did you moor, what are the broads like, what was the boat like.........i must have got on his nerves but he always took the time to tell me in great detail everything i wanted to know. It never dawned on me till years later that he was a broads addict from day one and it was apparently his favourite subject lol.

To cut a rather lengthy tale into digestible chunks, he went every year from then on, sometimes twice a year, always toward the end of the season and always with aston boats. Then the greatest thing happened, it was july 1975 and he uttered those immortal words, guess what trev, off on the broads in october, great thought i, you lucky git! Then the bombshell......he was taking me with him. i was so excited i nearly fell off the shed roof ( cant remember why i was on the shed roof but for some reason i was..).

So began the countdown to october and getting the aston cairn for a week from Loddon, i religiously read the hoseasons brochure every day for the entire three months, just in case there was some detail about the boat i had missed or a bit from the holiday hints and tips section i had overlooked.

That was the excitement it caused to me as a teenager, since then i have always had an affinity for that place we call the broads and became a regular hirer once i had left the royal navy, never thinking for one moment that one day i would have my own boat there. Ok i had a twenty odd years absence as i had a boat on the canals but i came back and brought a new breed of broads lovers with me, in fact my friends cant get enough and are always planning and plotting the odd week here and there.

So, thats how an ignorant pre teenager first found out about the broads and eventually had a dream come true.

Happy boating all

cheers

Trev

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