Outdoors
Forest School
‘Forest school is an inspirational process that offers children, young people and adults regular opportunities to achieve and develop confidence through hands on learning in a woodland environment’. (Jennar, 2004, Murray 2004 and O’Brien 2006)
At WHF we offer weekly forest school sessions for our Hedgehogs, which is based at Manor Farm on Allington Road. The children spend time learning how to build dens, how to use tools such as saws and knives and how to make a fire. The children then cook, using different cooking methods, their lunch on the fire which they sit and eat together around the campfire. The children also do lots of exploring and learning around the woods, playing adventure games, and doing lots of craft activities which allow the children to use their imagination and share their ideas.
The nursery works on an enhanced ratio of 1:4 for forest school sessions.
Forest school sessions are provided two to three days a week during term time. The sessions run from 10.00am to 2.00pm and includes lunch and snacks.
During the school holidays forest school sessions are available for school aged children. These dates will be uploaded onto our calendar on the website.
For more information about our forest school sessions, pricing and securing a place please contact Clare.d
Secret Garden
Our Secret Garden is full of exploratory areas, we have the water area where children have free access to the tap, the water tray and lots of metal resources helping to support the holistic child. This area also has a mud kitchen which enhances the children’s creative thinking and allows the children to build relationships with their peers. There is a sand area and a pond, home to our nursery fish and yearly tadpoles. The secret garden leads to our garden room, a wooden cabin used by nursery children during the day and for our afterschool foxes in the evening.
Garden
WHF strongly believes in the benefit of outdoor play with this being a big focus of our provision we ensure children have maximum access to the outdoors. All 3 groups of the nursery have a door leading to two gardens ensuring free flow between both indoors and outdoors, giving the children the freedom to decide where to engage their play. These two gardens have a variety of areas and resources including mark making to ensure a love of early writing can be explored, lots of gross motor resources such as climbing frames, bikes and trikes and small world and role play opportunities for the children to develop creativity and imagination.
Orchard
Our Orchard is the place where all the children want to be. The Orchard is the home to our chickens. All groups of children visit the Orchard daily whether it be to feed and care for the chickens or just to run around and explore the great Outdoors.
Not only does the Orchard boast a superb outdoor space but it also holds a great selection of trees varying from cherry, apple, walnut and trees that are great to challenge a climber.
Foxes Den is a log cabin full of nature fun, this includes a perfume making area, a bug investigation area and ”Chippy’s workshop”, where the children can use their imagination and make things with wood such as bird boxes.
Other areas of the Orchard include the mud kitchen, Fairy Garden, Vegetable patch, bug hotel, digging area and play equipment such as slides and a climbing frame.