Forest School
At Coleham we are passionate about outdoor learning and access to quality Forest School sessions. Forest School is an inspirational process where the children explore and take the lead in their learning. We believe that young people develop most when they are ‘learning by doing’, when they are given responsibility, work in teams, take acceptable risks and think for themselves. We have a wonderful conservation area in our grounds containing a historic stone folly, large pond and tree decks and viewing platforms. It is full of nature and wildlife and home to families of badgers and foxes that we regularly film in our camera traps. Our children are regularly seen pond dipping, cooking on camp fires, exploring nature and building dens. In addition our EYFS children have their own woodland area, Little Cubs Orchard which they access up Badger Hill at the back of their classroom to enhance their child initiated play. We offer a variety of Forest School Clubs for our children to participate in after school working in partnership with The Shropshire Wildlife Trust and Inside-Out Learning.
Outdoor Learning
Outdoor learning is much more than participating in Forest School activities. It is a philosophy we are embedding throughout our curriculum so the children learn outdoors and make practical and meaningful cross- curricular links in their subjects such as History, Maths, Art, Design & Technology, Science and Geography. Learning can be bigger and messier outside. We have seen that outdoor learning is much more powerful for some children and we can achieve so much more working in a cross-curricular way.
Our Year 4 children combined their Design and Technology cooking project with their history studies on The Tudors. They enjoyed making traditional Tudor ‘Pottage’ on an open camp fire. They also enjoyed some outdoor Maths where they had to form a giant 40 metre timeline using their knowledge of place value and history.