Abstract
This report presents findings from an evaluation of Belfast City Council’s (BCC) ParkLife Education Programme which ran between September 2018 and June 2019. This is the second evaluation of the Programme – a report on the evaluation of the 2016-17 cohort of children involved was published in 2017 (Kerr, 2017). To ensure comparability, many of the measures used in the 2018-19 evaluation are the same as those used in the 2016-17 evaluation.In total, 171 children in eight schools in the Belfast area took part in the current evaluation of the Programme. The children completed an online pre-programme and post-programme questionnaire. In addition, 12 children from two schools took part in two focus groups and spoke in greater detail about their thoughts on the Programme. The results indicate a positive impact for all of the programme outcomes and engagement with the Parklife Education Programme was a positive experience for the children involved.
The data from this cohort of children shows substantial improvement in their knowledge of their local parks and nature within them. This was of particular note in the responses to the knowledge-based questions on the online questionnaire but also obvious in their detailed discussions about their learning, during the focus groups. It is also important to highlight that this increase in knowledge was not as substantial for the previous cohort of children in 2016-17 (Kerr, 2017).
The data from this cohort of children shows substantial improvement in their knowledge of their local parks and nature within them. This was of particular note in the responses to the knowledge-based questions on the online questionnaire but also obvious in their detailed discussions about their learning, during the focus groups. It is also important to highlight that this increase in knowledge was not as substantial for the previous cohort of children in 2016-17 (Kerr, 2017).
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Number of pages | 47 |
| Publication status | Published - Sept 2019 |
