Our Environmental Tutor each Wednesday afternoon provides an outdoor, nature-themed workshop to all classes on a rota basis.
Our themed gardens and grounds provide a beautiful, stimulating outdoor learning environment where much of the curriculum can be enhanced through practical activities.
Throughout the four seasons, classes come outside to interact with and learn about our natural environment through many hands-on, practical activities, including:
- Cultivating the soil and planting a variety of bulbs, perennials, shrubs and trees.
- Sowing and growing fresh, organic food – from ‘Seed to Plate’
- Annual Sunflower growing
- Annual RSPB’s Big Schools’ Birdwatch and making bird feeders
- Exploring our Wildlife pond to learn about aquatic life and their lifecycles
- Sowing and growing wildflowers and understanding their importance as nectar rich plants for our much-needed pollinators; the Bees and Butterflies
- Creating habitats for insects, arachnids, birds and more as well as exploring hibernation
- Learning about the origins of rocks and soils and how different soils develop over time and space.
- Using Keys to classify plants and wildlife
- Using Identification sheets to discover and become more familiar with the flora and fauna visiting and living in our school grounds
- Composting, reusing, recycling and upcycling in order to reduce waste.
- Reducing Energy use and being water wise
and more….
We are also able to enhance our Topic themes outside, including:
- Using the ‘Three Sisters’ method of planting corn, beans and gourds to support our Mexico studies.
- Engaging in the ancient building technique of Wattle and Daub during our Viking and Anglo- Saxon studies
- Making and then baking ‘Viking Bread’ in our Cob Oven.
Children in all year groups gain a wealth of knowledge and experience through their nature themed workshops, and most seasonal activities can be linked to curriculum and topic learning in a variety of practical ways.
Importantly, children are able to explore their senses, learn how to care for other life forms, see and understand where and how their food grows, work as a team, harvest, prepare and eat fresh, healthy, organic school-grown produce, understand lifecycles and seasons, familiarise themselves with a variety of plants and their names, learn how to use basic gardening tools safely for a variety of planting activities, develop their creativity through their design ideas, signage for the gardens, habitat creation and more..
Links to curriculum include:
- Knowledge and understanding of the world, exploring the natural environment; classification, lifecycles, plant parts
- Caring for the world.
- Observing changes in different seasons: light levels, flowers growing, fruit and veg available, leaves budding, opening, changing colour and then falling and wildlife seen.
- Looking at creatures in the soil, exploring rocks and soil.
- Learning about and building/planting habitats for wildlife.
- Maths activities including shape and space measuring.
- PSED Personal Social and Emotional Development. Explore, calmness, encourages conversations, team work etc.
- Outdoor writing and poetry opportunities.
- Expressive arts and design – creative opportunities using natural resources.
- Speaking and listening – children often talk and converse more in a relaxed environment.
- Physical development – health and self-care.
- Children learn about healthy foods as they are able to help sow, grow and nurture them – from seed to plate.
SEE OUR TADPOLE VIDEO
Science Study Programmes:
| Autumn 1 | Autumn 2 | Spring | Summer 1 | Summer 2 | |
| Year 1 | Everyday Materials | Animals including humans | Animals | Plants | Seasonal Changes |
| Year 2 | Everyday Materials | Animals | Animals including humans | Living Things and their Habitats | Plants |
| Year 3 | Rocks and Soils | Forces and Magnets | Animals including Humans (plus Nutrition) | Plants | Light |
| Year 4 | Living Things and their Habitats | Animals including Humans | Electricity | Sound | States of Matter |
| Year 5 | Earth and Space | Important Scientists | Properties and Changes of materials
Forces |
Animals including Humans | Living Things and their Habitats |
| Year 6 | Living Things and their Habitats | Light | Spr 1 – Animals including humans
Spr 2 – Scientists and Inventors |
Electricity | Evolution and Inheritance |
Summer 2 – Week 1
May Half-Term
May 2020 – Science Newsletter
Hello everyone! While you are busy completing your work at home, there are lots of scientific discoveries just waiting to be made.
Click on the link below to read our new Newsletter for some really simple ideas on things you could try out.