This term, our children at Hungerford nursery school will have regular access to acres of woodland, marking the latest development in the school's efforts to provide the children with greater challenge, freedom and control over their outdoor learning.
Our staff had always monitored the outdoor provision but embarked on a review when, due to building work, we had to move to temporary premises with a smaller outdoor area.
When your outdoor area is busy and all the children are occupied, you don't think that you've got too much. But what we found was that we were overequipped. Like so many people, we'd felt that we had to provide for all the curriculum areas outdoors. It was still a good experience for the children but it was one that we, the adults, were delivering. So, it wasn't promoting the children's independence and autonomy, it wasn't letting the children's creativity flow and it wasn't letting them develop things in the way that they wanted to.
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