I’m always amazed at how much creative energy children have. You don’t have to tell them to create something, it just happens naturally when you give them the space to be themselves. Wouldn’t it be great to come up with and carry out all these fantastic ideas when you got together with your friends in the park or pub, instead of sitting there chatting? The trouble is, how much time do we let children really be the directors of their own play before they’re told to stop it, put it down and come inside? (more…)

When children are coming back to the woods again and again, you can really start to see how they have grown. We’ve been working with the same children at St Ives woodland every school holiday for nearly a year now and some of that growth is literal -they’re taller every time they come back! But much of the growth is from the inside as they demonstrate increased abilities to co-operate, communicate and problem-solve. Our St Ives group is very mixed in terms of age and ability but they all work together and help each other out. The really rewarding thing is seeing how much their belief their own abilities impacts on their belief in themselves. (more…)

When I was at school and the weather was nice we used to ask the teacher if we could take our books outside. Fortunately the idea of the outdoor classroom has come a long way since then. This month I’ve been really inspired by some fantastic examples of how the outdoors are being used as a space for learning.
In my role with Creative Partnerships (www.creative-partnerships.com) I’ve helped to set up creative learning programmes in schools in Leeds and Bradford and help them recruit practitioners to carry them out. This month I’ve had the privilege of visiting and seeing how they’re coming on. (more…)