Thanks to everyone who took part in our recent Head Office monthly staff meeting and short East group Education training session focused on the Nature Friendly Schools (NFS) project.
Positivity during the new experience made me feel capable and enabled even though we didn’t ‘successfully’ complete the task – a different view of success.
FSC Staff feedback on ‘how being outside makes them feel’.
Nature Friendly Schools is an exciting new £6.4m government funded research project. FSC is a partner in the project, along with The Wildlife Trusts, Young Minds, Groundwork and Sensory Trust. The project aims to improve understanding of the effectiveness of interventions (spending time) in nature by:
All staff at Head Office and those attending East Education training had the opportunity to take part in a short outdoor session, focused on positive wellbeing outcomes:
– Develop social skills and teamwork: Working collaboratively, communicating in informal spaces through play and enquiry. Developing active listening, reasoning, care and compassion for others.
– Encourage adventurous play: Immersion in a range of different habitats to explore and have fun. How do we interact with these environments, assess risks and utilise our resilience?
– Foster interests: Develop and engage passion for the natural world by opening their eyes to the wealth of nature around school, local green spaces and further afield.
– Improve problem solving: Participants are challenged to plan, adapt and communicate through a problem-solving exercise. Building relationships through a common goal.
– Support children to find places of calm: Provide an opportunity for quiet focussed work or play. Encourage moments of calm by, for example, observing how animals move and interact with each other and the environment.
– Support children to have fun: Exploring new environments encourages participants to be creative and curious about the world around them. Participants relish being outside, doing practical activities, working together to discover together.
Calm, relaxed, refreshed, reset, engaged and alive.
Some of the key words chosen by FSC staff to summarise ‘how being outside makes them feel’
Janine Maddison and Sam Thurston continue to work hard on the Nature Friendly Schools project, developing close working relationships with our partners and participating centres. Facilitating training, mentoring staff and providing resources to successfully deliver the project.
We look forward to sharing our learning across the FSC and supporting the NFS partnership as we transition from development to delivery. We continue to be excited about the potential of this large scale project!