At St Michaels we have really developed our ethos of learning and exploring outdoors over the last 4 years. We play outside every day no matter what the weather and when we ask our children where do they prefer to play the resounding answer is …. “OUTSIDE!”
The staff actively encourage the children to interact with the natural environment and skilfully support their learning and development through interests sparked. We want to ensure that our outdoor learning is not the inside with the roof taken off but through careful planning and skilful support we can develop every area of the curriculum and the children’s development as successfully outside as inside.
To develop this further Mrs Mc Allister, Mrs O Donnell and Miss Kayes went back to school at Stranmillis University attending night lectures on Forest schools over 4 weeks. Our enthusiasm was ignited and we decided to further our development and train to become accredited Forest school Leaders. As a result we have started Forest School sessions on our site.
We had our first session on Friday 5th April and despite being an extremely wet and cold day the children really engaged with the opportunity and really enjoyed the activities.
I would really encourage you to get outdoors with your children – why not join the forest school Family programme?
The benefits for everyone involved are HUGE!- Just think …. You are getting outside into fresh air, being active, supporting mental health and wellbeing , exploring and engaging with the natural environment and your children will be learning through doing ,where they love to play best……OUTSIDE!
