Outdoor learning

Why do we promote outdoor learning at Southfield Junior School?

To develop confidence and self-esteem through hands-on experiences in an outdoor setting.
To encourage everyone to mix with different year groups.
To encourage social skills.
To enable children to get outside into nature, get dirty, take calculated risks and have fun.

These sessions are run by Mrs Law and Mrs Barber, who both love to get their hands dirty!

How does it benefit the children?

Outdoor Learning helps children to grow in confidence as a result of the freedom, time and space they are given in their learning. It allows them to develop independence at their own pace.

Does it have an impact on their learning?

Outdoor Learning can be particularly effective for children who do not always feel confident in the classroom environment. Children learn to solve problems and be creative and imaginative which in turn encourages confidence and allow them to display different areas of enterprising behaviour.

Risk Assessment for Handling Animals

To look at our risk assessment for children handling animals whilst at Outdoor Learning, please click here.

Term 2 - Walk into Winter

For our final Outdoor Learning session of the term, the children created Christmas cards. They used paints, but instead of using a paint brush they used different sticks collected from our woodland area.

The Wombles of Southfield were at it again today! The children collected two full bags of rubbish. Thank you to the people who spoke to us to say what a brilliant job we were doing for Highworth, it was lovely for the children to hear. We also had time to sit on the podium and have a hot chocolate before returning to school. Thank you children.

Another lovely day to be outside even though it was chilly. The children heard the story of 'The Green Man' then went into the forest area where they were tasked with making their own using biodegradable clay, leaves, twigs and berries. Then we had a warming drink to finish our session. I hope you will agree, they look amazing.

Today the children were tasked with searching foliage for Mrs Shaw. She has taken the foliage and made a stunning wreath for the school. Thank you Mrs Shaw.

Then armed with clipboards and cameras the children got into pairs to search for different coloured objects in nature. Once they found something suitable, they took a picture.

We also collected the wildlife camera we had placed in the forest the week before. Once inside, we sat with a lovely hot drink and watched the videos that had been captured. We caught a magpie, a cheeky squirrel and the back end of a fast fox! There were lots of videos of cats, other birds and squirrels running up and down the trees having fun.

A freezing cold day with remnants of iced snow on the ground, we were keen to get outside to have some fun. The children were given tarpaulins, muslin and tents to create a camp. They had to work together to find the best place to set it up.

Once they had decided on a suitable spot, they pitched their tents ready for some hot chocolate or hot orange to drink. That certainly heated them up!

What a lovely day to be outside. We gathered lots of leaves, sticks and berries to create pictures of animals and things that we associate with winter. It was such a beautiful day that we created our pictures outside, we just had to watch out for a few gusts of wind!

We also did a quick litter pick in the playground too. The pesky crows always pull the rubbish out the bins after breaktimes.

We all know the significance of wearing a red poppy, but do you know why some people wear a purple one?

In 2006 the wearing of a purple poppy was introduced to represent and honour all the animals that were killed in war. Animals like horses, dogs and pigeons were recruited into the war effort to help humans with their unique abilities. Animals are still used today, and we were very lucky to have 'Lady.' an ex-RAF Explosives Search Dog visit us during Outdoor Learning. She was trained to sniff out bombs or devices that would be a danger to humans. A very brave dog indeed!

The children then made poppies to represent both humans and animals who sacrificed their lives for us.

Term 1 - Amble into Autumn

Our first session back after the summer break and the sun was shining, although it was a little bit nippy! We set up the cameras in the woods to see what animals we could capture and to see how much the fox cubs have grown.

Then we set about climbing trees to pick and collect cooking apples. Some children had never climbed a tree before and absolutely loved it. Always remembering to have three points of contact on the tree at all times, some managed to climb quite high. Even Mrs Barber and Mrs Law had a go, much to the delight of the children.

We were so excited to see the videos we captured with our two trail cameras that we had placed in the forest area last week.

This time we captured many cats and birds, squirrels, hedgehogs, field mice and the fox cubs, who have really changed in size. Who knew that all that was going on in our playground at night!

After we watched the videos, of which there were many, we went into the forest to see exactly where the animals had been. We had noticed that a lot of rubbish had blown into the area so we set about cleaning it all up and using litter pickers to dispose of it all, before setting up the cameras again, in slightly different places.

Then we went back to tree climbing, which had been such a popular activity from last week. How lovely to have another outdoor learning session in the sun.

A couple of weeks ago we picked apples from our large apple tree in the playground. Today we peeled, chopped and stewed them to make apple crumble. The children did this all by themselves. Making the crumble was more fun, as I expect was eating them at home afterwards. A very busy afternoon.

We had a very important animal come to visit the children this afternoon called Comet. He is an African Spurred Tortoise (Sulcata Tortoise) species of tortoise that comes from the edge of the Sahara Desert in Africa. They can live up to 80 years and can weigh up to 60kg, that's the weight of approx 2 labradors! They are the 3rd largest tortoise in the world and they are an endangered species.

He is two years old and weighs 6kg and the children were amazed to watch how much of the field he walked, eating his way through grass and dandelions. He was fed a treat of lambs lettuce which his owner, Faith is currently target training him with. This so so that when he gets to his full weight they will be able to encourage him to move by using this technique.

Today we weighed and measured him and we will keep a check on his growth over the coming months and years.

The Wombles of Southfield Junior School went out on a litter pick around our beautiful town. It made the children feel proud and gave them a huge sense of achievement. No only were they keeping Highworth tidy, they were helping to protect our wildlife too.

We collected 5 bags and we were surprised at how much broken glass we found in a place where young children may be running in the leaves or animals may come for a sniff!

Several members of the public, thanked the children on their way round the town.

Today we had a visitor, called Jax. Mrs Barber had a DNA test carried out and discovered that Jax is half Labrador, 25% Bullmastiff. 12% American Staffordshire Terrier and 12.5% Rottweiler, what a mix of dogs! The children were interested to see the results.

Mrs Barber talked about the stimulation required for dogs to keep their brains healthy and the children watched as he did tricks for treats.

The children also designed their pumpkins ready for carving next week.

This week the children got to work carving their pumpkins. They cut the top off, scooped out all the seeds and flesh ready to create the face. (The flesh and seeds were carefully collected for Mrs Barbers chickens.) The children tried to copy the designs they had drawn the previous week but some found their designs a little tricky. I hope you agree that they are all amazing. Happy Halloween!