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Today we have been celebrating Red Nose Day. The children came to school wearing their uniform with red accessories including red noses. Many thanks for your amazing films for our Comic Relief video– they are extremely entertaining and we look forward to sharing the finished production with you once we have edited them together. In our Celebration assembly this afternoon it was great to hear the wonderful learning that has been taking place this week. From exploding volcanoes, Swan Lake Ballet production, frog spawn, ducklings, The Wild Robot writing, Rainforest artwork, reading the Great Kapok Tree and a tremendous amount of learning outside too. What an incredibly busy week. It has been wonderful observing the school taking advantage of our campus and taking learning outside. Forest School sessions, nature walks and pop up classrooms have all returned throughout the week. Latest research (Research International Journal of Behavioural Nutrition and Physical Activity) suggests that during lockdown most children spent less time outdoors, became less physically active and spent more time in front of screens. Active outdoor play has benefits for child health, wellbeing, development and educational attainment. Play is so important to childhood that it is enshrined as a human right in article 31 of the UN Rights of Child. It seems odd that such an important and normal aspect of childhood as playing outside is under threat, but the problem nationally was there pre-lockdown. Running, cycling, swimming, hiking, climbing, exploring and playing games not only provide opportunities
Newsletter No: 22 Friday, 19th March 2021
natural world and learning bush craft skills including whittling, knife skills, fire lighting, cooking and den building. Resurrecting active outdoor play means getting more children outdoors more often and this calls for the rewilding of childhood. That means family outings to explore nature; making park visits routine; encouraging children to play imaginatively outside, like building dens – any kind of creative outdoor for physical activity, they also stimulate play that fosters curiosity, exploration, coimagination and creativity, help us to develop operation, imagination and self-expression. problem-solving skills and encourage Lockdown has been vital to tackling the interaction with others and the environment. COVID-19 pandemic, but the loss of outdoor Free play outdoors, which isn’t organised or play should not become one of the supervised closely by parents, is especially unintended consequences. good for activity levels, wellbeing, social and Our PE lessons are a fundamental part of emotional development and resilience. The school, rather than just another subject. reasons playing outside was in decline even Physical activity is so central to the school’s pre-lockdown are complex and varied but approach to wellbeing providing include fear of children hurting themselves or opportunities to develop a child’s mental getting dirty. Safety concerns are health and physical health. Next term we are looking forward to our Sports Day and Swimming Gala for the children to participate and compete in as part of their Houses. Miss Flockhart is organising the Easter Holiday Club with many exciting activities for
conveniently reinforced with lots of “safe” things for children to do indoors, mostly in front of screens. As part of the roadmap out of lockdown, active outdoor play should be encouraged and prioritised. Time which children would have spent playing outside in the past has increasingly been replaced by screen time. Cooped up glued to a computer should be tempered with blasts of fresh air and running free without being supervised too closely. Observing children at Forest School throughout the Pandemic either with Critical Key Worker Children or in our normal weekly class sessions, it has been wonderful watching the children exploring freely the
the children to get involved in. If you would like your child to attend then please complete the sign in details at the end of the newsletter.