Forest School
Breathe the Wild Air
We all know that being outside is beneficial for our wellbeing, which is why at Sutton High Nursery we make sure our girls have time to learn outdoors every day. Our Breathe the Wild Air initiative allows our girls to explore, dream and discover the world around them.
One day our girls may be gardening or planting flowers, the next they could be acting as Palaeontologists or playing with water!
We are also currently having a bespoke building being created which will include an outdoor learning terrace called ‘The LookOut’. This space will include a garden, rockery and plenty of room to go birdwatching, find out names of plants and learn all about nature.
Step Aside Sir David Attenborough!
Sutton High’s new state-of-the-art prep and nursery building, Fernwood House, is fast becoming a hot spot for a new generation of budding David Attenboroughs.
Since it opened in September, the sustainably built outdoor classroom has caused quite a stir amongst the youngsters who are fascinated by the outdoor learning terrace and the creatures the woodland garden is home to.
The new building was also inspired by research undertaken by UCL in 2019, pre-Covid, titled ‘Nature Nurtures Children’. In this study children completed learning in the outdoors and they were surveyed both before and after. The results were unequivocal.
- 90% of children felt they had learnt something new about the natural world
- 79% felt the experience and help their schoolwork
- 84% felt they can do new things
- 79% reported feeling more confident in themselves
Ms Musgrove adds, “These results convinced us that our sustainable approach to learning about the environment meant that our own teaching environment had to be relatable and tangible. I think it has been a huge success so far and the feedback speaks for itself. Fernwood House and our garden classroom are a blueprint for what classrooms of the future should look like.”
