Nelson nursery embraces outdoor learning in Nurtured in Nature sessions

Run by Mark Standen, who previously lived in Clitheroe before moving to Langho, and Rachel Trenchard, who have been coming into the school once a fortnight since the end of October and will be doing until the end of June, Nurtured in Nature aims to make the kids' learning more interactive with nature, with the parents of children at Woodfield Nursery on Sefton Street in Brierfield joining the pupils to make lanterns during one of the sessions.

"[Nurtured In Nature] do activities outside; we've had a mud kitchen, we've had a fire bowl, we've been cooking on the fire, teaching the children about safety outside - they go around and find all the hazards and mark them so the children know what's safe," said Headteacher Angela Dixon. "What we're trying to do is involve the community a bit more.

"It's about getting them involved with the children's learning," Angela added. "It's a great way of getting the children involved in outdoor learning given they don't do it at home as much. It's essential [to vary the way children are taught]; children learn in different ways."

Taking advantage of working outside of the classroom, the children engage in a range of different activities as part of the Nurtured in Nature programme, including louder activities, using clay and getting messy, including, according to Angela, collecting blackberries and smashing them onto material to make artwork.

"We've got a lot of children for whom English is a second language, so it's a lot of language learning as well, and they're just inspired and really focused on what they're doing," Angela said. "It's been a real learning curve for staff as well.

"The children absolutely love it."