We are very fortunate to have trained enthusiastic Forest School team members and a lovely outside space, to use regularly with all children during outdoor learning. We encourage positive interactions with the outdoors to foster curiosity and give children the freedom to touch, smell and hear the natural world around them during hands-on experiences.

This practical and hands-on nature of outdoor learning offers our children a chance to take supported risks, appropriate to themselves and the environment within which they are in. We can see it helps to develop a wealth of essential, lifelong skills including the development of self-regulation skills, learning from situations that do not go to plan and how to cope with that, building resilience, knowing how it feels to achieve and be successful, improving motivation and concentration and developing teamwork and problem-solving skills. It also has huge physical development benefits too; it helps to develop the children's overall body strength, balance, coordination and agility by encouraging the children to use a range of equipment including wheelbarrows, spades, ropes to pull up on, tunnels, den making materials and rope ladders.

Most importantly, the children are so engaged and excited to have the opportunity, time and space to explore, follow their own interests and start to develop an understanding of themselves.