Visit from our client, Gyles Morris

We had in informative, fun and interesting visit from Gyles Morris today. He gave us a talk about his background and what he does in Wales. Here are some notes from his talk:

'Every young person should experience the world beyond the classroom as an essential part of learning and personal development, whatever the age, ability or circumstances.'  Learning Outside the Classroom Manifesto.

Gyles achieved a degree in Landscape Architecture in Leeds University. He worked for a spell in Australia and later for the Hampshire Council where he worked on a roads project and more interestingly doing schools landscaping, which included designing outdoor areas for children. Gyles retrained as a teacher 20 years ago, but has not taught in school. He now has a small holding in Wales where he teaches teachers and children of all ages through imagination and play. http://www.naturesbaseschoolcamp.co.uk/Staff.html
Here amongst many activities they make sculptures and cook in clay ovens, allowing children enjoy learning skills outdoors.

Our children are suffering 'Nature Deficit Disorder'. Naturebase helps teach children, parents and adults how to play outdoors. Here is a book about the disorder: Last Child in the Woods, Richard Louv

Blurb about this book: This huge international bestseller, fully revised for non-American readers, is now in paperback. "Last Child in the Woods" shows how our children have become increasingly alienated and distant from nature, why this matters, and what we can do to make a difference. It is unsentimental, rigorous and utterly original. Camping in the garden, riding bikes through the woods, climbing trees, collecting bugs, picking wildflowers, running through piles of autumn leaves...These are the things childhood memories are made of. But for a whole generation of today's children the pleasures of a free-range childhood are missing, and their indoor habits contribute to epidemic obesity, attention-deficit disorder, isolation and childhood depression. "Last Child in the Woods" is a clarion call, brilliantly written, compelling and irresistibly persuasive - a book that will change minds and lives.

Gyles said that wilderness camps (American Summer Camps) have gone from being based out in the wild, to obesity camps or computer based ones. This is quite sad and frightening too! The media in the western world has given us 'stranger danger' mentality which is disproportionate to the reality and we are keeping our children 'safe' indoors. Statistics say that more children fall out of a bed and break an arm than out of a tree, also more children recognise a dalek more than an owl!

Gyles also mentioned the National Trust site which is promoting a scheme to get children outdoors and doing fun things: https://www.50things.org.uk/  The website is a little uninspiring, but the ideas are great fun and easy to do:

Richard Louv has started a new nature movement, and there is an interesting article on this: http://blog.childrenandnature.org/
Forest schools have also been set up all over the country to promote outdoor learning. It has been found that a child of 4 can do their own risk assessments and know their own boundaries. Ask a child what they can watch out for and allow them to explore freely.
Here are some recognised Advantages of Outdoor Experiences that he listed for us:

• exposure of the senses
• development of cognitive skills
• better concentration
• better communication with other children
• accessible to all abilities and learning styles - children with learning difficulties thrive in outdoor activities; can be more creative, imaginations thrive and they work better together and help each other express their own opinion
• "When children spend time in the great outdoors, getting muddy, getting wet, getting stung by nettles, they learn important lessons- what hurts, what at is slippery, what you can trip over or fall from."
• Self confidence and self esteem
• team work
• motivation
• skills and knowledge and pride in achieving
• geocahing http://www.geocaching.com/

My responses to Gyle's little work task for us: He asked us to draw what the moon looked like last night, what was the area we live in used for in the past, name 5 resident birds, name a white flower, trace the origins of the ingredients of last night's meal and name 10 edible plants found in the wild:

These are things that help us connect culturally, socially and environmentally.

 We next went outside for a session of working with nature. Here we constructed a 3D adventure page using material we found. Our group made a Princesses tower with a magical forest.

The Princess was at the top of the tower, where she had a lovely garden.

Here you can see the magical forest, through which the Prince has to come in order to save the Princess.

Another groups 3D page of a garden, complete with a stream and pond.

Gyles then showed us how to make a face using mud...

very messy, but great fun!

This was the face I made.

 





and this was Felicity's.

 Here is another view of our page.


All in all this was a fun session and showed me just how important outdoor play is for children. (and adults!)

The session helped us see how fun Gyles must make his activities at the centre he runs.