Outdoor Learning

By Mr Smith and Mr Davies

It has been a busy year for all things Outdoor Learning related; pupils across Prep have been making use of our many wonderful outdoor areas to enrich their learning, get their hands dirty and even have a go at growing veg!

One of the children’s favourite places to visit in School must be Forest School. The pupils from Pre-Prep up to Year 3 have all enjoyed making numerous visits to our Forest School this year and their excitement and enthusiasm for this time spent outside is palpable. The pupils love having the space to explore the outdoors safely and with few limits – digging in the ground, climbing trees, ducking under branches and climbing over things. It provides much needed time in the fresh away from screens and allows the pupils to play and explore imaginatively, develop practical skills such as problem solving and team work. During Michaelmas Term, the School’s dedicated Estates Team got busy creating a new allotment area, funded generously by the Parents’ Association. Our excitement that this new area to plant fruit and vegetables in would be ready for Spring planting was only marginally marred by the news of another national lockdown meaning pupils would not be on site to see and use it for some time. In true Birkenhead spirit we carried on, choosing instead to send all Little School pupils at home a variety of seeds they could begin growing before bringing back in with them when lockdown ended. Upon return to school in March the children across Prep enjoyed getting stuck in to planting in the allotment. Infant children had great pride planting their seedlings out and pupils in other year groups enjoyed sowing herb seeds, vegetable seeds and even planting potatoes. Of course, the best part of all the hard work was getting to pick the fruits of their labour – quite literally. The children have been able to cut sweet pea flowers to brighten up the Prep Office and pick pea pods straight from the plant and have a taste. The children have been mesmerised to see the

plants growing day on day and have helped ensure they are watered and cared for. Our new allotment also inspired its fair share of learning – Year 2 pupils carried out science experiments to see why only some things can be composted down and the effects of this on landfill. Year 1 pupils enjoyed planning a meal using only food that could be grown in our allotment. Next year we will continue to grow a range of fruit and vegetables and who knows maybe some of this food will make it onto the children’s plates.

Year 1 pupils have continued to enjoy taking part in Nature Club as part of our co-curricular offering. With so many areas to take care of the pupils have enjoyed helping out in the allotment, looking after the sensory garden and planting new plants to keep our school looking bright and colourful. Throughout the year pupils across Prep have been making use our Outdoor Classroom, Willow Dome and other outdoor areas to liven up their learning and inspire a love for the outdoors.

Whilst Outdoor Learning is already a key part of what makes our School special, the work never stops. In the future we hope to expand our sensory garden further with a sensory path, develop the use of the Forest School area, create more areas of wildflowers to help pollinators and, having already gained our Level Two RHS School Garden Award, strive to gain our Level Three Award.