Outdoor Learning
Outdoor Learning
At St Peter’s Catholic Primary School, we are lucky enough to have a fantastic Forest School and our own Garden area on site. Outdoor Learning is challenging, fun, healthy and integral to life at St Peter’s RC Primary School.
We believe that every child should experience the outdoors as part of their education, wellbeing, and personal development. All the children have numerous opportunities to take their learning outdoors. This can either be through lessons in the Forest School area or the Garden area. Formal Forest School sessions for Reception and Year 1 will commence in Summer term 2024 and will provide a further outdoor learning opportunity.
Forest School
Miss Reynolds is our qualified Forest School Leader in the school. Forest School is an exciting opportunity for your child to experience nature and learn outdoors. It acts as a child-centred learning process that offers opportunities for holistic growth.
At our Forest School sessions the children learn from first-hand experience and develop skills such as independence, perseverance and responsibility. These are all skills that will help them become lifelong learners. At St Peter's School, children have shown to develop socially, emotionally, physically and intellectually. Children engage in activities such as building dens, building bug hotels, creating leaf collages and more. Through these activities, our children are given the opportunities to engage in real life problem solving and work as a team.
Garden area:
At St Peter’s RC Primary School we have a garden area that we use to produce food and we have an area with wild flowers that we use a quiet area for prayer and reflection. Many pupils do not have access to a garden at home so this provides them with that outdoor opportunity and for everyone to get their hands dirty, to grow their own and understand where food comes from.
Promoting love, care, kindness and generosity, we support our children to distribute the harvest to our immediate St Peter’s community, prepare the vegetables in school as part of our Design and Technology curriculum and promoting healthy eating.
Why is this important?
Our high- quality outdoor learning experiences:
- Develop resilience and adaptability in adverse circumstances linking with our Growth mindset.
- Allow children to become more able to identify hazards and risks.
- Develop a love, appreciation and respect for nature and all the living things that God made.
- Develop an understanding of how we can look after our environment, grow our own vegetables and share that with our St Peter’s Community to share God’s love.
- Develop our communication and teamwork skills.
- Help us identify that we are all unique and special as God created us with different talents.