St Tudy: celebrating the great outdoors

 Reception and year 1 pupils from St Tudy CE Primary School are being taught the value of their incredible environment, and have their lessons outdoors every Friday.

Their class teacher, Daniela Cheetham, sees this as an important part of their school life.

She said: “Every subject is covered, and being outdoors inspires and motivates the children.  The enthusiasm is written all over their faces.  We have great adventures and recently went on a dragon hunt where we discovered where the dragon may have lived in a big tree! We have been measuring rainfall, looking at the weather and cloud watching.”

Head of School, Jennie Franklin, also believes that learning out in the natural environment is an important part of children’s development.

Miss Franklin said: “We are very lucky to have this opportunity on our doorstep and this is the beauty of being a small school surrounded by countryside”.

Last term the pupils also had the benefit of sessions with visiting staff from the Badger Forest School.  With them the children have been taking part in exciting activities including making and lighting fires, toasting marshmallows, den building, whittling wood and foraging in the woods.

When the children were asked what they enjoyed about Forest School and being outside, they all agreed that Friday was their favourite day of the week.

Luke said he enjoyed making stick men, Oliver liked going on the adventures, Harry said he liked making fires and several children said they enjoyed toasting and eating the marshmallows.

The feedback from parents is also very positive, with many of them telling Mrs Cheetham how much the children enjoy their days outside. 

Luke’s mum, Penny, said: “He was raving about his day in the rain – he loved it.”

The children at St Tudy make the most of their access to the wonderful countryside that surrounds their school.