Jun 25, 2016 | Art & Music Outdoors, Community Involvement
This past week, if you have been in the Cruickshank Botanic Garden in Aberdeen, one of the trees – the cut leaf Norway maple – has been decorated as part of a temporary art project. During the past six months, local individuals who access Sense...
Jun 22, 2016 | Community Involvement, Developing School Grounds & Outdoor Spaces, Early Years Outdoors
This week I have had the privilege of visiting the Stramash Outdoor Nurseries. All of the nurseries are noticeably good at making do with free and found materials to create structures and resources for, and with, the children. The approach reminded me very much of...
Jun 1, 2016 | Art & Music Outdoors, Community Involvement, RME Outdoors
Every cloud has a silver lining. As I was unable to travel back home this past weekend, I stayed in the Peak District and savoured the fine weather. From a fellow traveller, I learned about the well dressing custom that is rife in Derbyshire and decided to visit...
Feb 26, 2016 | Art & Music Outdoors, Community Involvement, Nature Play & Learning
Back in 2102 I blogged about the sand dog sculpture below. I was genuinely delighted at the ingenuity of the person who was creating a dog from a small bag of sand. In the years that followed I’ve received numerous enquiries from people about whether these dogs...
Oct 7, 2015 | Community Involvement, RME Outdoors, Social Subjects Outdoors
In 2014 I posted about the love locks I came across in Vilnius. I’ve kept this post much as it is and have left it down below. Not long afterwards, whilst working at St James Primary School in Caerphilly, I discovered a lovely twist on this tradition,...
Oct 1, 2015 | Art & Music Outdoors, Community Involvement, Social Subjects Outdoors
Since 2009 Inverallochy School has been actively making its school grounds an exciting place to play and learn. They are one of many schools now demonstrating that this is a process and not a product. It’s not about a one-off grant fund application or waiting...
May 9, 2015 | Community Involvement, Developing School Grounds & Outdoor Spaces
In April I had the privilege of visiting in New Zealand. Although it was a whistle stop 6 days involving training one day and flying the next, I did pause to catch my breath in Christchurch. I met up with an old friend and children’s citizenship and...
Mar 11, 2015 | Community Involvement, Early Years Outdoors, Gardening, Literacy Outdoors
There are many books especially textbooks and non-fiction books which are simply no longer fit for purpose. Some charities, such as Books Abroad, will take unwanted educational texts, but their criteria needs to be checked and only specific books can be donated....
Feb 8, 2015 | Community Involvement, Developing School Grounds & Outdoor Spaces, Early Years Outdoors, Technologies
When I visited Highway Farm in October, the Hobbit House immediately grabbed my attention. It is a beautiful, bespoke structure. Naturally I had to find out the story behind its existence. At Highway Farm Activity Centre – where there is an out of school club...
Dec 10, 2014 | Community Involvement, Personal & Holidays
Earlier this week, thanks to Richard Louv’s blog post on the Children and Nature Network, I learned that one of the most inspiring US outdoor educators, Brother Yusuf Burgess, had unexpectedly passed away on 5th December. He had lived and worked in Albany,...
Aug 11, 2014 | Community Involvement, Gardening, RME Outdoors
A couple of months ago, I was passing through Elgin and took the opportunity to visit the Biblical Garden, which is the only one of its kind in Scotland. Having never visited before, I was rather intrigued to find out more. They are known for housing some...
Jun 26, 2014 | Community Involvement, Developing School Grounds & Outdoor Spaces, Health & Wellbeing
I love stumbling across features in school grounds which make me drool. The dirt bike track at Muirfield Primary School in Aberdeen is one of them. It is cool… The community appear to think so too. In the past, most developments in the grounds have been...
Jun 5, 2014 | Community Involvement, Personal & Holidays
Recently, I was presenting at a Kirklees Council conference, I’m a Kid, Get Me Out of Here, which was based at Cliffe House. This council-run outdoor centre is a wonderful place. Aside from a beautiful location, really quirky dormitories with decent beds...
Feb 15, 2014 | Community Involvement, Developing School Grounds & Outdoor Spaces
All over the UK and beyond there are a wide variety of shelters to be found in school grounds. This post looks at some matters to consider if you are considering a fixed shelter and gives a range of examples which go beyond the standard shelters typically found in...
Oct 20, 2013 | Community Involvement, Developing School Grounds & Outdoor Spaces, Early Years Outdoors
Do you ever stumble across interesting play spaces? When went for a walk into the Queen Elizabeth Forest Park nearby Aberfoyle. Scottish Forest has been very busy creating an accessible walk that is just right for a young family to complete in an afternoon....
Sep 18, 2013 | Community Involvement, Play Resources, Technologies
What’s your idea of a den? I worked largely in tarmac playgrounds and school grounds which often had few trees suitable for den building. The dens I saw children build tended to be reliant on boxes, lattice tunnels and attached to fences or a line of rope tied...
Aug 6, 2013 | Community Involvement
On Sunday I finally made it to the Turriff Show, which is the biggest 2-day agricultural show in Scotland. This was a wonderful event with lots of ideas, food for thought, and big machinery. I find wandering around such events, gives me good inspiration and an...
Apr 16, 2013 | Community Involvement, Nature Play & Learning
You know you are going somewhere good when all you can hear is children laughing and other happy sounds coming out of a woodland. This was my introduction to Broxburn Family Centre’s Out of School Care. For more than a week of the Easter holidays, they have...
Mar 2, 2013 | Community Involvement, Whole School
I often get asked about how parents will view learning outdoors There is no short answer to this query as there are many possibilities and options. Operation Eco Allochy At Inverallochy School, parents are kept fully informed about the playground and other outdoor...
Nov 28, 2012 | Community Involvement, Developing School Grounds & Outdoor Spaces, Technologies
The focus on palettes continues. I was staying in The Bunkroom Hostel recently which had a tiny social space outside. As with all hostels, this was created on an ad hoc and shoestring budget. Naturally this means lots of potentially transferable ideas to cash-starved...
