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...
Nov 17, 2012 | Developing School Grounds & Outdoor Spaces, Gardening, Technologies
Many years ago, I was fortunate enough to spend the day in the company of Tim Gill who took me on a magical tour of the Kate Greenaway Nursery and Glamis Adventure Playground. Our final destination was a temporary pop up community play space which oozed wonderful wood...
Nov 3, 2012 | Art & Music Outdoors, Community Involvement, Developing School Grounds & Outdoor Spaces, Early Years Outdoors
One of the most impressive low level features at Glamis Adventure Playground is the monster. This mighty mosaic houses the sand pit and water feature and is an incredibly attractive work of art in its own right. By the looks of things, the monster was created through...
Oct 12, 2012 | Community Involvement, Developing School Grounds & Outdoor Spaces
The day I visited the Kate Greenway Nursery was also the day I visited Glamis Adventure Playground which also goes by the name of The Shadwell Community Project. I’m still digesting the experience. It was the playground equivalent of being given a Michelin...
Sep 13, 2012 | Developing School Grounds & Outdoor Spaces, Early Years Outdoors
Last week I was facilitating an evening training session up at Gardenstown Playgroup. It is one of the privileges of my work, that I get to visit different settings and to see lots of different ideas in action. I particularly like seeing what settings do with small...
Jul 25, 2012 | Art & Music Outdoors, Developing School Grounds & Outdoor Spaces
Very often my blog posts are based upon random acts of discovery. An incident, event or landscape feature appears during my daily life which just lends itself nicely to a blog post and this is one of those. During my holidays, I was wandering down the main shopping...
Apr 18, 2012 | Developing School Grounds & Outdoor Spaces
In 2009, I ran a course about outdoor learning on behalf of Learning through Landscapes, the Scottish school grounds charity. It was a super event as the participants were interested and keen. A few months later, a request for a professional site visit came my way...
Mar 24, 2012 | Developing School Grounds & Outdoor Spaces
This post is a celebration of a remarkable makeover of a grim patch of ground. It is still a work in progress but I think you’ll agree that the Adventure Aberdeen staff have done a wonderful job. Eighteen months ago this was what the site looked like: The area...
Mar 10, 2012 | Developing School Grounds & Outdoor Spaces, Nature Play & Learning
One of many advantages of repeated visits to a place is the development of an affinity or connection with it. Familiarity provides security amidst change and chaos. Since October, two of my classes have been visiting a unique and remarkable place. It’s in the...
Feb 29, 2012 | Developing School Grounds & Outdoor Spaces, Play Resources, RME Outdoors
Children love mazes. Whenever I undertook consultations with children about what they like to do, the idea of having a maze in the school grounds really appealed to them. One school I worked with ran a competition for a maze mural, and the children created this...
Feb 1, 2012 | Developing School Grounds & Outdoor Spaces, Nature Play & Learning
This is a long overdue guest post. Last September, Malin Blomster, who lives and works in the Stockholm area, in a suburb just south of the actual city, sent these photos and text. She was keen for the blogging world to see a typical early years establishment in...
Nov 22, 2011 | Developing School Grounds & Outdoor Spaces, Early Years Outdoors, Nature Play & Learning
Toulcuv Dvur is best described as an urban environmental education centre. It is situated in a built up suburb of Prague. The nursery is in the far left cornerThe founder, Emilka Strejikova, was an early years teacher who strongly believed in nature “imprinting” and...
Oct 5, 2011 | Developing School Grounds & Outdoor Spaces, Early Years Outdoors, Nature Play & Learning
Three years ago, I visited a rural nursery class which was part of a small school, in Lovčice village. I was able to view the outdoor spaces and see how natural features and materials were integrated into the design the outdoor area and impacted on play. Here’s...
Oct 5, 2011 | Developing School Grounds & Outdoor Spaces, Personal & Holidays
In the summer I visited the Lake District and popped into Rothay Park in Ambleside. It’s a lovely well-maintained place and has a little play area which looks like this… It’s a fairly standard affair for young children and to be honest, I found it a...
Sep 13, 2011 | Developing School Grounds & Outdoor Spaces
Six weeks ago, I was in the Lake District which is re-knowned for its social and cultural heritage as well as its scenic beauty. In fact I believe its the interactions of the people with the landscape over several centuries that has made the Lake District such a...
Sep 7, 2011 | Developing School Grounds & Outdoor Spaces, Early Years Outdoors, Nature Play & Learning
Mulleborg is a Swedish outdoor pre-school. This means that the children who attend will spend at least 80% of their time outside, all-year round in all weathers. For more information have a look at this case study and the Rain or Shine report which I wrote after...
Aug 11, 2011 | Developing School Grounds & Outdoor Spaces, Early Years Outdoors, Nature Play & Learning
Cowgate Under 5’s Centre’s outdoor space has undergone quite a transformation since the last time I was there. What really struck me was the sheer abundance of beautiful stones scattered around every nook and cranny… Stones in the outdoor shed (no...
Aug 7, 2011 | Developing School Grounds & Outdoor Spaces, Early Years Outdoors, Nature Play & Learning
This blog post was originally published in August 2011. However I decided to repost in recognition of Lynn McNair’s time at Cowgate and to keep this moment in time captured. Previously I’ve blogged about Cowgate Under 5’s Centre here and here....
Jul 31, 2011 | Developing School Grounds & Outdoor Spaces, Play Resources
A few weeks ago I blogged about a presentation given by Rusty Keeler. I’m still reflecting on the ideas he suggested, in particular relating to the cultural traditions and heritage of a local area and thinking about this in relation to the school grounds and...
Jul 20, 2011 | Developing School Grounds & Outdoor Spaces
When planning to develop an outdoor playspace or school grounds, many practitioners are concerned about out of hours visitors and the possibility of vandalism to their area. Yuk! This graffiti isn’t even that arty! Last month, I listened to an interesting...
