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Above and Beyond Educational Experiences

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Forest School

Forest School is an inspirational approach that focuses on offering unique experiences for children outdoors. Forest School takes place in a woodland or natural wooded environment to support the development of a relationship between the child and the natural world. Forest School aims to promote the holistic development of all those involved, fostering resilient, confident, independent and creative learners. Children are offered a range of activities to support this which include:

Our Toddler Room which is for children aged two to three years, has dedicated areas to meet all of our children’s needs, in an environment where they can feel safe and secure, and have fun. This includes space for active play, quieter areas for children to concentrate or enjoy quiet time, and for children to sleep.

Our approach

Our approach goes above and beyond the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) to foster deep level learning and optimise potential.
We offer a range of unique educational experiences which enable children to become successful, lifelong learners including

  • Whittling carrots and then moving onto sticks
  • Den building
  • Using tools to cut wood
  • Storytelling by the fire
  • Cooking on the fire pit
  • Listening to the sap rising in the trees using a stethoscope.
  • Haper zome – making marks onto cloth using leaves and flowers.
  • Role playing among the trees.

Forest School

Our Forest School is run by a qualified Forest School Leader who will also risk assess the activities on offer and decide on the control measures to minimise the risks. Forest School offers children the opportunity to take supported risks appropriate to the environment and to themselves. For example, children are involved in risk assessing their journey to the forest. Also, at the start of the session the group discuss the Forest School rules including how far they are willing to play. 

Once the children agree on the rules the Forest School lead will tie red ribbons around the trees to show the boundary of the Forest School. Having made the rules, children are more likely to observe them. Forest School programmes aim to develop the physical, social, cognitive, linguistic, emotional, social and spiritual aspects of each child. Being in the woodland centres children and enhances their wellbeing.

Comfort Approach

We have developed our unique ‘Comfort Approach’ based on research that even before a baby is born they begin to be able to detect different smells, and by the time they are born they will be able to recognise their parent’s scent. Midwives and health visitors have used this knowledge to suggest that clothing worn by a parent or a blanket or special toy that smells like home will provide reassurance and comfort to help a child to settle. Our Comfort Approach pouch includes a scarf and crocheted square known as a ‘Comfort Blanket’ which we give to parents when they register their baby to start at nursery. Parents can wear them close to their body to enable their smell to be embedded into the fabric – filling them with love – and then send them to Nursery with their baby.

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Cooking Stations

Cooking in the Early Years is an enjoyable experience which offers a wealth of learning and development opportunities. Our Nursery’s cooking activities provide cross curricular learning across all seven areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage, and because children enjoy the experience so much, they are not even aware they are learning new skills.

These activities are a sensory experience often using all five senses, making it a more engaging and truly memorable experience. Cooking also gives children the opportunity to extend their knowledge about healthy food options, explore where food comes from, and encourage a wide range of discussions.

Cooking Stations

At our nursery, we believe that preparing children mentally for the challenges that life may bring, is just as important as preparing them intellectually and physically.  In our ever-changing world, one third of children within nurseries today will go on to jobs that currently do not exist. To ensure they are as prepared for this as possible, it is vital that children’s Personal, Social and Emotional Development is at the forefront of everything we do. Making relationships, being able to regulate behaviour and understanding how to manage their feelings are key skills that children must learn to be successful in their later lives. With this in mind, our nursery has a dedicated area where children are able to develop these skills.

Feelings

Starting with our youngest children; the ‘Feelings Bag’ is filled with resources that allow them to begin to acknowledge different types of feelings, such as happy, sad, shy, excited and angry. Practitioners use tools and resources, supported by detailed activity cards, to introduce these feelings to the children and also to demonstrate different ways in which they can be supported or ‘made to feel better’. This provides children with the initial understanding of how someone might make them feel happy and excited, or supported when they feel sad or shy.

Garden Champions

Children today, have an ever-growing curiosity about the outside world, where foods come from and how they grow. Garden Champions is our own bespoke gardening activity. This activity extends children’s knowledge of the outdoor environment, habitats, caring for living things, growth cycles and growing vegetation outdoors. Our Garden Champion activities are an effective method of harnessing our children’s curiosity in this area and shaping their understanding of the world around them.

nominated ‘Garden Champion’

Our nursery has a nominated ‘Garden Champion’ who attends regular training sessions to further develop their own knowledge and skills, enabling them to bring back to nursery, a range of seasonal activities which can be carried out with the children. This is not simply an activity of planting grass seeds in a pot, but is in fact an opportunity for children to make use of real-life gardening tools and equipment to prepare an area, sow seeds, tend to vegetation and harvest their produce at the end of the process.

Aside from developing knowledge of plant life and what is needed to promote healthy growth of their garden, our children also gain an understanding of agriculture, farming and the food chain, through a wide range of extension opportunities, both inside and outside of the classroom.

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