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Northumberland Learning Landscapes

Ways to attract wildlife

The RSPB gives lots of practical advice on how you can plant all kinds of shrubs and flowers that will benefit birds and other wildlife throughout the year e.g.

Other plants

 

 

                                Outdoor Play: Providing Continuity in Purposeful Play and Exploration (Carrying on in Key Stage 1)

Becoming involved in Forest Schools

Forest Schools aim to encourage and inspire individuals of any age through positive outdoor experiences. Angela Youngman investigates the outdoor learning initiative, which originates from Scandinavia

http://www.teachingexpertise.com/articles/becoming-involved-forest-schools-3928

 

 

                              

Design for Play - A guide to creating successful play spaces

This guide produced by Play England, shows how to design good play spaces, which can be affordably maintained, which give children and young people the freedom to play creatively, and yet still allow them to experience risk, challenge and excitement. 
The guide is available free of charge - order your copy from Play England or download here.

Download Design for Play: A guide to creating successful play spaces [2.7MB PDF].

             
The mud centre: Recapturing childhood

Becky J. Jensen and Julie A. Bullard

This is the story of an early childhood programme staff’s decision to share the joys of mud with children through the creation of a mud centre. click here
                                                   
Muddy Faces: a company providing resources to promote challenging outdoor play including outdoor clothing and Forest school equipment. www.muddyfaces.co.uk                                  
Early Years Outdoors,  in partnership with the national school grounds charity 'Learning Through Landscapes', helps early years settings improve how they use, design and manage their outdoor spaces.

To visit their website click here
                                                                     

                                                  
Imaginative Play outdoors- ideas and resources available from the Early Excellence Resource Centre:

Themed role play resources, books and signs to stimulate and enrich expression, communication and language including firefighter, paramedic, builder, garage, picnic, camping and barbeque, shopping, etc. Click here

                                                

Learning and Teaching Scotland

Learning and Teaching Scotland provides advice, support, resources and staff development to the education community, creating a culture of innovation, ambition and excellence throughout Scottish education.

Click here to access their informative early years outdoor learning pages Outdoor learning

                                       
 Playlink Places for Play photo exhibition:  Intro
                 

Nature's Playthings

Author: Alison Wilson Smith

A whole world of free entertainment is out there waiting to be discovered, in gardens, woodlands, hedgerows, rough land and open spaces.

All it needed was Alison Wilson Smith, now a grandmother, to recall her childhood activities using nothing but nature’s playthings, to inspire a whole new generation to play outdoors.

Here’s how to make itching powder from rosehips, the rules of conkers, the joys of making leaf-boats, flea darts, grass whistles, daisy chains, poppy dolls and more. Of playing pooh sticks, stone-skimming, pond-dipping, stick-in-the-mud, dam-building and feather-collecting.

This practical and lively book will remind parents and grand-parents, childminders, schools, and playgroups, how to inspire young people to get outside and enjoy nature’s playthings.
ISBN: 978 1 906122 00 3

Nature's Playground: Activities, Crafts and Games to Encourage Your Children to Enjoy the Great Outdoors

By Fiona Danks, Jo Schofield

This delightfully illustrated book is a guide to introducing children to the outdoors through fun activities in nature. Designed for use by families, carers, play workers and teachers, the book sets out guidelines for safe and engaging play outdoors, with useful tips on how to hold children's attention on longer excursions.

For more details click here

Nature's Playground: Activities, Crafts and Games to Encourage Your Children to Enjoy the Great Outdoors

Welcome!

We want to inspire all schools to get gardening

Join the Campaign to get your own school growing and help us to bring the joy of gardening to school children across the UK. The benefits of gardening are endless; increasing social skills, creativity, confidence, and healthy and sustainable living; building a positive future for the next generation.

Click here for more information

 RHS - Campaign for School Gardening
The B&Q One Planet Living (OPL) Grants provides £50 to £500 (at retail cost) of B&Q materials, for example, pond liners, plants, peat-free compost for projects such as a pond/wildlife garden.

For details of how to apply click here

Edible Playgrounds want to get every school in Britain doing just that - setting aside a bit of ground for growing, plus learning and having bucketloads of fun along the way! Click below for ideas, help and lots of useful links

http://www.edibleplaygrounds.co.uk/

 

  Potting up

Welcome to Groundwork Northumberland

Groundwork Northumberland works to promote environmental regeneration and improvement in Alnwick, Blyth Valley, Castle Morpeth and Wansbeck.

Developing School grounds – working to create stimulating school environments for play and learning by transforming school grounds.
 
For more information click here

Groundwork logo
 Cooking outside with children can be an exciting and memorable experience. The storm kettle is a valuable tool to help you quickly heat water by creating a small contained fire from twigs, paper etc.

 

To find out more about storm kettles try:  http://www.eydonkettle.com/

 

Storm Kettles
                                        
                                      
 

Bridgwater College is the pioneer of the Forest School concept in the UK.

 

Their website provides background information on Forest Schools and training to become a forest school leader.

Forest School is inspirational, opinion changing and challenging. It raises expectation. It is a “breath of fresh air” (Margaret Hodge, former Minister for Lifelong Learning and Higher Education).

http://www.bridgwater.ac.uk/pages/sites/forestschool/index.asp

            

Learning Outside the Classroom Manifesto

The aim of the Governments manifesto is to ensure that all children and young people have a variety of high quality learning experiences outside the classroom

To find out more about the manifesto Click here

 

                

The leading charity dedicated to wildlife conservation and environmental education in North East England. Our mission is to conserve local wildlife, promote nature conservation and provide the means by which everyone can become involved. http://www.nwt.org.uk/

                                                                                        

 

Teaching Expertise is the website of Optimus Education. They publish books, resources and newsletters for education professionals, focusing on Early Years, special educational needs, thinking skills, enrichment, leadership, assemblies and more.

For useful articles on developing outdoor learning spaces and risk taking try the following link:

http://www.teachingexpertise.com/articles/early-years-development