Let's Go Green: Workshop Review

Get an insight of our workshops by reading this review by Sam Sweet, Head of Year 1 at Balfour Primary School (Brighton). We ran a workshop there based on 'going green' & science, with shelter making, mini-beast hunts & more, with lots of creative learning. Original article is from the fantastic School Travel Organiser. 

Get in touch if you work in education and would like us to visit your class for an outdoor learning workshop.

Sam Sweet, Head of Year 1 at Balfour Primary School, Brighton, East Sussex

Workshop location: The Outdoors Project Base Camp, the Mac's Farm, Ditchling, East Sussex

Topic: Science & going green

Key Stage: 1

Why?

We wanted to organise a trip to link with our ‘let’s go green’ topic. We had not been to Mac's Farm before, but The Outdoors Project had come to school assemblies, run after school clubs and run a sports week at the school, so we knew they had a very good reputation. We had been to various places in the area in the past and were looking for something different, and the venue is only half an hour from the school so it was easy to get to.

What did you do?

We took 120 pupils over two days and on each day they were divided into groups of 20 to rotate around three different activities. One involved survival shelter building where they went into an area in the woods and worked in teams to build a shelter using sticks, leaves and other materials to hand. At the end the shelters were covered in tarpaulin and the children all got inside while the leaders came around with a giant water pistol to see how waterproof they were. For the second task they sat at an outdoor table and looked at photos of mini-beasts, with their names underneath, and then went to a different area with lots of logs to look for things such as woodlice and earwigs and collect them. They were taught the importance of not harming them, by collecting them with a brush to put into the jar and then returning them afterwards. Then there was a workshop where they made a clay mini-beast each, using things like twigs for legs. The third activity involved team games based around stalking and tracking in a big field, where there were lots of things to hide behind. They got rid of a lot of excess energy as they played at hiding from prey or hunting prey.

Why would you recommend it?

It took place in a really safe environment but had the feeling of being really adventurous and exciting. The group leaders were really good fun and engaged with the children, and the pupils loved the way they joked and laughed with them. It was really easy to organise and the communication was great. We had emails going back and forth in the lead up to the trip and they even rang the school office on the day to let us know there were potential hold-ups on the road that might make us late.

Best part?

It was simply a brilliant day out. My class loved the shelter building the best, especially the bit with the water pistol at the end. The other classes really enjoyed the mini-beast activity. It provided excellent links to our topic, and we continued to study mini-beasts back in school, and was really good fun. We will definitely be going again next year.

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