Tuesday morning saw nearly 100 staff from Westborough School visit our Chatham Green Project to engage with the outdoor learning opportunities at our wonderful ‘living classroom’.  We organised the event to run as if school children were visiting the site so the staff could get a real idea of what’s on offer to their pupils.
Four activities were showcased to highlight just a few of the various learning opportunities possible on the site:
Invertebrate biodiversity surveys allowed the group to get hands-on with some bug collecting equipment and to focus on the varied mini-beasts that call the Chatham Green Project home. This session had curriculum links to science, geography, citizenship and english.  Everyone really enjoyed closely looking at the invertebrates and learning about their importance to ecology and farming – with just a couple of screams when a spider was discovered!
A sustainable energy session allowed the groups to learn about our impressive solar panels here at Chatham Green as well as linking their use of the suns energy to green plants, working with the curriculum in science, geography, maths, and learning for sustainable development.
Farming economics highlighted the crops grown in the local area, how to identify these, and the growing costs, bringing into reality the work that farmers do to produce enough food for an increasing population.
Finally a hedgerow based session looked at the plant diversity in our native hedgerows and brought in a little maths in calculating the perimeter and surface area of a leaf. We also had some of the visitors using an interesting method to work out how tall our hedgerow is.  We really found that running outdoor sessions following curriculum links helped to open up new questions and a broader learning experience. Everyone got really involved and enjoyed their morning in the countryside.
We have had some fantastic feedback from Kes Harker, Head of Outdoor Education, Westborough School:
“Your calm and enthusiastic approach put our staff instantly at ease and the activities engaged everyone – including the few outdoor reluctants!”
“You have created a beautiful learning environment and there is no doubt that it would benefit our children”
We will be working on establishing a strong relationship with Westborough School and their pupils so they can visit the site throughout the year and experience the full benefit of outdoor learning and connecting with nature. Any other schools who would be interested in learning more about the site please contact Amy at amy@wildernessfoundation.org.uk or telephone 01245 443073.