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Westover Green Community School and Autism Centre

Outdoor Learning and Forest School

Overview

At Westover Green we are proud to offer our students opportunities to learn and develop new skills through the use of our outdoor spaces. We frequently use our woodland area, field and playground to enrich our curriculum and provide pupils with outdoor activities to engage them with their learning.

Outdoor Learning

At Westover Green we are proud to offer all our students the opportunity to take their learning outside of the classroom environment. We utilise our field, playground and woodland area to enrich the curriculum and offer active and engaging learning opportunities. Our wonderful outdoor spaces are used to help us teach English, Maths, Science, History, Geography and much more!

Outdoor Learning Photos

Year 5 science - Investigating changes in materials when they are heated.
Foundation - counting to seven
Year 6 - DT, Geography and History. Making a fire to cook an Aztec stew.

Forest School

Forest School is a program of at least six sessions delivered in our school woodland area on site. It is offered to small groups of children to help develop holistic areas such as confidence, self-esteem, positive behaviour, fine and gross motor skills and much more.

Activities range from simple scavenger hunts to more adventurous tasks such as fire lighting and tool use. Within these activities, we aim to develop areas such as perseverance, patience, team work, communication, problem solving, thinking skills, risk awareness and how to keep ourselves safe. Many of these skills are transferable into a classroom environment, allowing children to become more confident and independent learners.

Forest School Photos

We learned how to tie a square lash knot to create a picture frame. We then used our picture frames to find things we liked in our woodland.

Westover Wildlife Photos

Through our Outdoor Learning and Forest School activities we encourage children to engage in caring for our surroundings and the wildlife that visits. We use a trail cam to capture images of some of our woodland friends and use these to educate the children on how we can look after them and keep them safe. This includes putting out food for birds and squirrels as well as looking for signs of our nocturnal visitors!

Our Westover Green fox loves to explore the forest after we've all gone home! We have three fox cubs this year! Can you spot the badger?