THE GREAT OUTDOORS
Our children spend as much time outside as they do inside, whether it be on forest school sessions at Southwater or caring for our animals in the farm school at Horsham.
The beauty of children playing outside is that they learn so much more and so differently from playing inside. Taking children into the woods and allowing them to negotiate uneven ground, circumnavigate logs, wildlife and precious flowers helps even the youngest walkers to manage themselves and better judge risks. It’s a shame that in the modern world many children grow up with chain link fencing and brightly coloured soft tarmac as their ‘outdoors’ experience. We commit to offering a more heuristic and real experience of the great outdoors that we hope will inspire them and encourage a love and respect for nature for years to come.
It is too easy under the guise of health and safety to try and remove the risks and therefore take away any challenge in the activity or environment for the children. We understand that a child’s need for challenge, if not met, will often express itself in other ways including challenging behaviour. The importance to us of a forest school or farm school encounter is in providing children the opportunity to take risks, encourage the right choices and build their self-confidence.
