Outreach Program: Let Magdalen come to you!

Child led school grounds projects:

We are delighted to have received funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund to help local schools to enhance their school grounds and to provide a range of activities to deepen children's understanding of sustainability and local heritage, through our Land Heritage in Action programme.

This unique programme provides children with an inspiring and practical opportunity to explore sustainable living and local heritage through memorable, muddy and hands-on activities. It combines a tailor-made day-visit to Magdalen with practical follow-up sessions at schools.

During our outreach sessions we work with children and staff to create unique school grounds features which provide not only a lasting interactive way to explore sustainable food issues, but also aim to bring beauty, colour and interest to school grounds for the whole school community to enjoy.

As part of this programme we can work with your pupils to create:

Cob bread ovens
Living willow sculptures, tunnels and domes
Raised bed vegetable gardens
Sensory gardens
Recycled gardens

To find out more or to arrange for us to come to your school for a free pre-visit to discuss ideas and possibilities with staff and pupils please download our information pack or contact us.

"Everything was more than we could have hoped for, but I think if we were to choose one highlight it would be using handtools to make "stick people" and the campfire cooking especially berry pancakes! Words cannot describe it - a fantastic opportunity for all."

Teacher, St Vigor and St John

Download our Forest School information pack

Forest School

Our 'Forest School' programmes run throughout the year. Participating children have the opportunity to take part in a variety of activities which reflect the rhythms and changes of the seasons. All of our activities help to bring the national curriculum to life, through inventive, memorable and meaningful activities and games that make learning irresistible. Children use full sized tools, play, learn boundaries of behaviour; both physical and social, establish and grow in confidence, self-esteem and become more self motivated.

Below are examples of some of the popular themes which can be woven in to a long term programme or a one off event:

Survival skills:
Hands-on, practical skill sessions including fire-lighting , campfire cooking and shelter-building.

Woodland whittling:
Learning to safely use essential woodland tools to transform nature’s resources into beautiful and useful artefacts to take home or enhance the site.

Environmental art and sculptures:
Exploring and experimenting with colour, texture and light to create a gallery of sculptures and art work made from nature’s pallet.

Storytelling and eco-drama:
With a little help from drama bags, story lines and nature’s props, children will fire up their imaginations to weave woodland tales and perform plays in their own forest theatres.

Darwin days:
Children will have opportunities to investigate woodland ecosystems through a variety of exploratory missions, games and craft activities.

Expeditions and mapping:
A multitude of quests, sensory mapping and orienteering challenges to bring map reading to life.

Exploring the elements:
Dynamic activities focusing on the wonder of nature felt through the senses.

These themes are just a sample, please contact us if you have any other specific themes or subjects you would like your pupils to explore.

Forest School has the most impact when undertaken as a long term weekly or fortnightly programme over a term or an academic year, however we can also run shorter taster sessions if preferred.

We can run Forest School sessions at your school or at our farm. Alternatively, if you feel your school grounds are not sufficient for forest school, Tilda Western can to offer help and advice and help you to develop links with local landowners who may be able to provide you with some local woods that will provide children with a safe and stimulating environment in which they can explore, learn and have fun.

Our forest school programmes are often combined with our other outreach work so that children play an active role in enhancing their very own forest school area through the creation of features such as cob ovens, willow domes and hurdles and herb gardens for use in all of their outdoor cook outs.

To find out more about any of our Outreach Programmes please contact Tilda Gibbs, our Local Schools Outreach Officer
Tel: 01460 30144, extension 30