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Outdoor learning is mostly led by the child's interests, the main goals of forest schools approach in primary age children include encouraging curiosity and exploration with all of the senses, empowering children in the natural environment, and encouraging spatial awareness and motor development.
School children visit forests, learning personal, social and technical skills. It has been defined as an inspirational process that offers children, young people and adults regular opportunities to achieve and develop confidence through hands-on learning in a woodland environment.
The combination of freedom and responsibility has been particularly beneficial to children who suffer from lack of confidence or whose behaviour is challenging. With high adult:child ratios, children can safely experience activities that are often prohibited, such as climbing trees. The programme allows children to grow in confidence and independence and extend their abilities.
All classes have regular sessions of Outdoor Learning, the younger children have Forest schools and  the older children work in the garden, raising flowers and vegetables. We have recently completed a number of projects which have transformed our outdoor environment. The work was planned by the children and had resulted in a wildlife pond, a willow arbour, a contemplative area and the raised vegetable beds. We have also planted a small orchard of fruit trees and have a wildlife area. All these areas are used in our teaching where children learn about their natural environment and how to care for it.
LITTLE OUSE HEADWATERS PROJECT
Garboldisham School was approached by the Little Ouse Headwaters Project to become involved with working with them to form an educational initiative for other Schools to use. This included working in collaboration with the Sainsbury Centre in Norwich, where staff would not only come into School to work with the children, but also trips to the Sainsbury Centre were offered to the whole School.
This has been going on for two years now, and the whole scheme has proved a huge success for all parties. The whole School has been involved, and with the help of the expert members of the LOHP and the Sainsbury Centre such diverse activities as bug hunts, diversity of species and habitats, digging peat and hopefully to gauge its calorific value (once it is dried), tracing the Little Ouse River from its source, studying artefacts from Papua New Guinea, attending an exhibition on basket wares and weaving, making Classroom totem poles using clay and forming it with plaster of Paris. The School is given the opportunity to contribute to the LOHP newsletter. Recent activities have been a project in collaboration with Reg Langston on methods to prevent predation of gorse by rabbits. Beech Tree Class spent time designing, constructing and erecting their precautions, and their efficacy is regularly monitored. To date, it would appear that several of the methods used are being effective at reducing eating by the rabbits. The cut peat finally dried out sufficiently to allow its calorific value to be ascertained. An experiment compared how long it took to boil a measured amount of water on a peat fire with that of a wood fire. It was found that whilst the wood burned hotter initially, the peat fire retained its heat longer.
The whole project has been inspiring and has fired every child's imagination in some way, and the School is hopeful that this collaboration will continue when the two terms of the initial project has been completed. Out thanks go particularly to Reg Langston of the LOHP who has given up hours of his time to work with the School on the outdoor trips, particularly to the LOHP sites at Redgrave, Blo Norton and Garboldisham.
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