Lecture on outdoor learning and Forest School in Early Years, Leeds Trinity University

A fun, enjoyable session with Level 5 students at Leeds Trinity University this morning exploring the theory and practice of outdoor learning and Forest School.

The session explored the Scandinavian origins of Forest School and how it is applied to the UK. It was very positive that so many students recognised that the outdoor space is an excellent resource that can be used to enhance the learning of children.

Outdoor learning brings confidence and independence to children of all ages allowing them the freedom to allow their imaginations to flourish!

Thank you for all you hard work!

The students had plenty of positive feedback!

"Two fantastic [ARTiculate] lectures attended and loved them."

Emma, student at Leeds Trinity University

"[I was inspired to] let children explore the outdoor environment freely."

Saphron, student at Leeds Trinity University

"It gave me a better understanding of how to work with children outdoors."

Rezwana, student at Leeds Trinity University

"Very interesting and I felt I learnt a lot."
Faye, student at Leeds Trinity University

"Very interesting and always discussion based."
Charlotte, student at Leeds Trinity University

Click here to see other lectures I have delivered at Leeds Trinity University.

Progression in primary drama - going beyond the National Curriculum

Drama is an integral component of primary English teaching. It is the engine that drives creative responses to stories, helping children explore characters, settings and predicaments. Yet the primary National Curriculum for England (DfE, 2013) makes scant reference to drama. Some generic guidance indicates the importance of speaking, listening and performing although these points are both too obvious and too generalised to be useful to teachers and subject coordinators hoping to embed drama across the whole school. When writing our forthcoming book, Teaching Shakespeare in Primary Schools: All the World's a Stage (Routledge, David Fulton, 2021), both Maureen and I felt that whole-school drama guidance for primary teachers - so integral to teaching Shakespeare's plays - was notably lacking from online resources currently available (apologies if you have produced such a document but we could not find it!). We decided to compile our own. In fact, you may have found this blog post

Filthy wretch or poor thing? Rethinking the Island, KS2, Week 1

A treat for the final half term - a new workshop at a delightful school in Leeds! This half term I am working with two Year 5 teachers to develop a cross-year group, cross-curricular writing project based on my favourite picture book, Armin Greder's The Island . I've done this book many times and every time the response is different! This week, we got to grips with the facts, possibilities and mysteries of the story. What do we know about the story so far? (we only ever read up to page 6 to leave it on a knife edge...) What doesn't this story tell us and what could we infer or predict? We looked at the crowd of islanders who 'welcome' the stranger's arrival. As in every class, country or community, no group ever sees the world the same way and we discussed how the islanders might react differently to the man. Is he a poor thing who needs to be rescued? Is he a curiosity? Is he a threat? We each adopted an islander and took on their perspective f

The Dragon Boat's afloat! Art with Year 1

This half term I have been teaching art with Year 1. Far from just being an art project, this work has shown how vital DT in helping children apply what they have learned in core subjects. For this art project, our topic has been the Chinese Dragon Boat festival, celebrated by Chinese communities around the world in early summer. We even had one here in Leeds! Our challenge has been to create a dragon boat that will float on water. The children drew and painted 3D dragon heads to attach to the scaly bodies that will make the floating part of the boat. The trickiest part was attaching the corks to the inside that would help the boats float on water. It took a lot of trial and error using a water tray to get it just right. The children did a fantastic job and have really enjoyed it. It just goes to show how vital art and DT are to children's learning - not only do they draw in creative aspects of learning, completing a project like this requires knowledge of science, math

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