William Barnes School

Since taking the reins at William Barnes head teacher Mrs Wrixon has always had the ambition to give the children the opportunity to extend their learning further in the outdoors.  However, with the cost of hiring coaches and the loss of curriculum time that travel to a suitable site would cause, it seemed that this dream would not become a reality.  However, by chance an opportunity arose recently when Mrs Wrixon heard that Primary Forest School had a rare gap in their schedule, and would be able to bring the Forest school experiences to William Barnes every Tuesday afternoon.

Each class from year 1 to year 6 has a half term when each Wednesday afternoon is devoted to outdoor learning in the school grounds with the Forest school staff.  There is also be a lunchtime Forest school club and children will also be given the opportunity to become Eco Warriors.  It is planned that the area around the Willow Frog near the top gate will also be developed to create a specific Forest School area within the grounds

Year 3 have had the absolute pleasure of Miss Taboor leading forest school activities during spring 2 half term. This began with an extremely muddy session where the children were encouraged to make mud pies and decorate using natural resources that they could find. The children, literally, dived straight into this challenge resulting in some rather mucky children! Week two brought around shelter building, where the children worked in small teams to build a waterproof shelter using knots they had been taught earlier. With the children responding so well to these sessions, they were able to use a variety of tools including, lobbers, secateurs, mallets and axes. However, I think that year 3 are all in agreement that the fire-starting session was a highlight resulting in a camp fire with toasted marshmallows and smores! Check out all we have managed on the schools Instagram account – williambarnesprimary. (JN)