Intent

At Our Lady of Sorrows, we ensure every child has the right to relax, play and experience the world beyond the classroom as an essential part of learning and personal development. We believe that learning in, with, about and for nature is as important for children’s development as learning to read and write. We want to show how learning outside of the classroom engages and excites children in spectacular ways. We want everyone to understand that living in a modern world children are having less time outside. Outdoors is key to improving children’s health, wellbeing and happiness.

The primary aims are:

·       To learn in, with, about and for nature.

·       To build self-esteem and confidence in children.

·       To build resilient, determined and independent learners

·       To develop children’s personal, social and emotional development.

·       To encourage creativity

·       To encourage collaboration.

·       To develop and build the ideas of risk management and risk benefit

·       To improve children’s life skills and experiences

·       To enable children to gain a respect for the natural environment and wildlife.

·       To transfer negative behaviours into positive ones.

·       To let children be children

Implementation

At Our Lady’s we offer a blend of outdoor curriculum activities and forest school sessions dependent upon the session objectives and aims. Our outdoor education activities enhance areas of the curriculum that the children are working on in class linked to topics and science learning when possible. The children are actively encouraged to participate in activities.  Forest School is a child-centred inspirational learning process, that offers opportunities for holistic growth through regular sessions. It is a long-term program that supports play, exploration and supported risk taking. It develops confidence and self-esteem through learner inspired, hands-on experiences in a natural setting. It is through these methods that we strive to provide our pupils with the widest range of skills and opportunities available. Due to its child led nature and focus on social development, Outdoor Warriors engages children in a manner that is hard to imitate in the classroom. This creates new opportunities for learning and development that might not be accessed during regular day-to-day schooling. As we know, every child is different, as are their learning habits, something that here at Our Lady’s we recognise, encourage and utilise.

At Our Lady’s, we are blessed with a beautiful outdoors learning environment ranging from the woodland area to the schools outdoor classroom and labyrinth. It is here the majority of the learning will take place.

Currently children in Year 1,2.3,4, and 5 have weekly outdoor sessions timetabled throughout the year. Class teachers are provided with ideas by our qualified forest school leader to allow opportunities for curriculum led outdoor sessions and encouraged to take the children outside to learn. These sessions are evidenced using photographs/facebook/pupil voice/display.  

Impact

Children at Our Lady’s will be more well- rounded and prepared learners and individuals. They will have a connectedness to nature and our planet and as such be ambassadors for the future.  They will not only be more confident and resilient learners, they will become more caring and supportive peers due to the heavy focus the curriculum places on understanding and generating empathy. This will allow children to become more able to regulate their social, mental, emotional and spiritual health meaning the children to perform better in collaborative learning and tasks, arming them with the skills necessary to improve themselves in their schooling career and life in the wider world.