Trotts Hill Primary School and Nursery
“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better” - Albert Einstein
At Trotts Hill School we are lucky to have an abundance of outdoor space at our disposal. We believe that making use of our outdoor space is integral to delivering our curriculum to all children, as outdoor learning has been shown to improve:
Learning outdoors supports our overall vision for all children to enjoy learning and develops children’s understanding of the wider world, including sustainability of green spaces.
In the Early Years (Reception and Nursery) both classes have access to weekly Forest School lessons every other half term. These sessions may include activities such as:
- outdoor team games
- using tools such as hammers, knives, saws and loppers in a safe, supervised manner
- natural crafts, such as weaving and woodcraft
- fire building, including cooking on a fire
Children also have their Child Initiated Learning outside during these sessions. We provide puddle suits for all children to wear so that we can go out in most weather conditions. However if there are strong winds or if it is extremely hot or cold, we will hold the session in the classroom.
In Key Stages One and Two we strongly encourage outdoor learning across the curriculum and all classes have access to a variety of outside spaces within the school grounds.
Summer term means that we have lots of flowers and leaves growing. Children in both classes have been learning the names of the flowers on our site, such as poppies, daisies, cornflowers and buttercups and using the flowers to make bookmarks. We have also explored grasses and leaves and explored carrying water to different places to extend our play.
Spring term is always so muddy so we need our puddle suits! Children in Reception loved our rope swing this term as well as mud painting and keeping dry under the trees. Children in Nursery enjoyed an Easter egg hunt at the end of term and have been hunting for minibeasts and climbing trees too!
Forest school has changed so much this term! We started off with a very dry leafy area to play and ended the term with lots of lovely snow. Both Nursery and Reception classes have enjoyed making things using sticks, clay and leaves, playing new games and exploring the forest. Children in Key Stage Two also took part in our first ever Forest School club! We are hoping to offer this again in the Spring term.
It has been very busy in Forest School this term! Our tadpoles have turned into froglets and lots of wildflowers have grown! The children have enjoyed a variety of crafts including flower bookmarks and clay insects. They have also learnt to use a hammer to make sundials and Happazome pictures. As the weather has been nice, we have also been trying out some tree climbing and rope activities.
This term it has been very muddy at Forest School! We learnt how to make mud paint and have been practising on our easel outside. Nursery class made some rock robins in class and Reception made a wormery to see how worms move the soil underground. Reception also cooked some bread on the fire, which they said was yummy!
This term we have been very busy learning about our Forest School. In Reception we have started to use some tools (loppers and palm drills) and made lots of crafts. In Nursery we have collected natural objects and played games.
We have also had a log circle built by Bartlett Tree Experts, which we will use for outdoor learning throughout the school.
