Nursery World - Outdoor project teaches children to solve disputes

Children have been helped to learn to solve disputes by themselves under a pilot study by the Forestry Commission Wales to see how pre-school children interact with each other and the environment when left to make their own choices.

Threeand four-year-olds from Pontycymer Nursery School in Bridgend, Wales, took part in the ten-week play project led by the Woodlands for Learning team, part of the Forestry Commission Wales. Staff were encouraged to take a step back by the project, which aimed to promote independent learning.

For the trial, a group of nine children spent three hours every week at the Rockwool Woodlands for Learning centre in Pencoed, Bridgend.

During the first session, the children were taught how to carry out a simple risk assessment of the woodland and given basic resources, such as buckets, ropes, trowels, water and mud.

Week by week, the resources were reduced until the children were using what they could find in the woods to interact with and use in their games.

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