Eight miles from the centre of London, in the suburban area of Mill Hill, a group of three- and four-year-olds at Belmont Farm Nursery School are investigating ladybird eggs. Equipped with magnifying glasses and binoculars, the pre-schoolers are peering into an area of leaves covered in tiny yellow eggs. ‘Look, this one’s a larva,’ one exclaims, pointing out the second stage of the lifecycle. Another group of children are off to visit Henny and Ludo, the resident pigs. ‘Children love to watch them rolling in the mud to protect their skin from the sun,’ explains nursery principal Victoria McAvoy. ‘They’re at the end of the valley so they’ll walk past the cows, sheep, ponies, alpacas and say “hello” to George the llama along the way.’
Experiencing lifecycles in real time, feeding and caring for animals and taking part in Forest School activities that connect them to nature are just some of the daily experiences on offer at this 185-place day nursery that opened on the site of a working children’s farm in September 2019.
Building on from the originsof the farm, which is open to the public for educational visits, the nursery offers ‘countryside education’ for London children.
‘A lot of children live in flats or new-builds with small gardens,’ McAvoy explains. ‘Some are here for ten hours a day – and parents want them to have quality experiences. They can feed goats in the morning and plant vegetables in the afternoon. The classroom space is large and purpose-built– each with individual free-flow gardens – and there are two on-site Forest Schools.’
ZONED LEARNING SPACES
Children are playing in the permanent water feature at the entrance to the Forest School site. A gate separates the site from the nursery building and practitioners take children for spontaneous outdoor play sessions throughout the day. Splashing around in wellies, they fill their buckets from the outdoor tap and pour them into the stream. One busy two-year-old is using all her strength to pump water into the stream using the automated lever system, while another group of children watch as their plastic boats cascade down the stream. ‘I won!,’ one yells triumphantly, before racing around to place her boat in the wooden guttering system, which is another permanent feature.
Leading up the slope to the Forest School area, there is a petting farm. Chickens, silver-tailed pheasants, turkeys, ducks, sheep and goats are housed in wired enclosures, and some of the rabbits are in transit to the baby room for a petting session.
There are three gated outdoor learning zones at the top of the site: one contains a mud kitchen; another a fire pit, teepee and plumbed outdoor toilet; and the third contains an open-air theatre and vegetable patches.
‘We refer to this as our “purpose-built” Forest School,’ McAvoy explains. ‘It’s rustic and natural but the space has been purposely designed for outdoor learning.’
With safety being a ‘huge consideration’ for parents since Covid, the gated areas are popular with parents who want their children to experience Forest School but are more comfortable with visible boundaries in place.
‘The space “contains” their play and learning, enabling them to get fully immersed in Forest School activities, such as foraging, leaf painting, digging and planting vegetables, den-building and balancing on logs without the added worry that they will wander off and eat something they shouldn’t,’ says McAvoy.
‘Children are still exposed to all the risks associated with being outdoors – slippery surfaces when moving from tree stump to another in the rain, berries, working with fire, using tools – but these risks are carefully managed and communicated to parents though workshops.’
Parents have recently had a session in the new woodwork barn. They experience how their babies use the space to touch the wood, stack it and paint it – and how the learning progresses to using hampers, drills, saws and wrenches to make items.
EXPERIENCING NATURE
Further down the farm, another building for three- to five-year-olds is housed in a converted barn. Adjoining it are pens for livestock where children can watch sheep being sheared or see the newborn lambs. This site has its own enclosed Forest School space, which is more of a traditional rustic site.
‘Our ethos is around building children’s confidence and empowering them to believe in themselves,’ McAvoy says. ‘We try to give them the life skills they need to succeed. This involves managed risk-taking and making mistakes and learning from them.
‘They also get to explore the awe and wonder of nature. They’re surrounded by animals that they feed and take care of. They see lifecycles in real time, in their natural environment. This helps them gain an understanding of how long it takes for a new life to form.’
In the summer, a new family of ducklings hatched from the eggs the children had been observing from the teepee area. Each day they went to check on the ducklings and watch them swim in the pond.
Practitioners have observed how a three-year-old boy is calmer outdoors. When he becomes overwhelmed, practitioners take him to the area in the forest where the ladybirds lay their eggs. Being in contact with them on a daily basis throughout the summer has helped him to regulate his emotions and modify his behaviour.
‘He’s learnt to be gentle,’ McAvoy explains. ‘One of our golden rules is gentle hands, which helps teach children respect for living creatures. He no longer picks the leaves up and squishes them through over-excitement. He carefully looks between the leaves for the larva, signalling to his friends to “be careful”. He examines them with a magnifying glass and loves to learn about the different stages back in the classroom.’
Practitioners extend the learning by making mini bug hotels out of water bottles with a hole cut into the middle where grass, leaves and twigs can be placed. There’s also a large bug hotel made out of crates, which contains woodlouse, spiders and ladybirds.
‘Curiosity sparks learning,’ says McAvoy. ‘We need children to ask questions. Why does the spider web look like that? How does the spider catch the fly? After looking at different spider webs we might look at it on the interactive screens on YouTube, or practitioners will help children recreate a web using string or masking tape and throw pompoms in it to represent flies. We extend their learning as we go, with thoughtful questioning, such as, “Is it sticky?”, “Is it soft?”.’
Forest School focused learning
Sadiye Tarcan, Level 3 qualified Forest School lead, takes small groups of six to nine children for two-hour weekly Forest School sessions.
‘We usually start at the outdoor theatre with a “hello” song, a story and some spontaneous acting and dancing on the stage,’ she says. ‘We’ve been making natural bird feeders with pumpkins, teaching them that they’re not just for Halloween but are edible vegetables. They’ve enjoyed smashing the pumpkins with sticks, sprinkling seeds on top of the pieces and placing them around the outdoor space for the birds to eat.
‘In the teepee area, there’s a firepit and we’re teaching them about fire safety and the uses of fire. Native American tribal stories are read in this area, and children create artwork and imagery and place it around the teepee.
‘We teach children to be mindful of their surroundings and to look out for animals, as well as taking care of the environment through things like composting and tidying up. We have a willow tree that the children have named Grandma Willow. They hug and kiss it when they go past.
‘In the mud kitchen area, children collect natural materials to make cupcakes or mud lattes. We have a large selection of saucepans, muffin tins, spoons and tea pots in different sizes, and children enjoy playing cafés, making up recipes and following instructions, such as a conquer, scoop of mud and leaf in each muffin tin.
‘We forage blackberries, hawthorn berries and wild garlic. The rules include “no picking and no licking” unless you’re with a teacher and they give permission; only take what you need because the food is for nature – birds, bees, squirrels and foxes. We make garlic butter and the children take it home with them to share with their families.’
Belmont’s best buys
- Best investment:Timotay Playscapes bespoke climbing frame, great for risky play experiences: https://bit.ly/3MQYHSn
- Best medium-priced resource:Jumbo Flexible Construction Building Blocks, £329.99, from TTS, great for building large towers and structures in all weathers: https://bit.ly/47JhwyR
- Best cheap buy: Soil and flower beds – use old sinks, wellington boots, tyres; fill with soil and seeds and let them grow.
- Investigate outdoors with: Set of Bug Jars & Magnifiers from Early Excellence: https://bit.ly/3MUteP2; Jumbo Magnifiers – Pack of 6 from Hope: https://bit.ly/3ukfyGE; Compact Butterfly Net from Insect Lore: https://bit.ly/40MXykz; Originals Waterproof Recycled Puddle Suit from Muddy Puddles: https://bit.ly/3STtZMb
- Further information: https://belmontfarmnurseryschool.co.uk
