Forest school club 12th and 13th July

Last week’s sessions offered some challenging new activities. The older children have been learning how to use a knife correctly to whittle a stick, and also how to pass, store and carry knives safely. They discovered that a sharp blade is safer than a blunt one, as so little pressure is needed. This makes very controlled, small movements of the blade possible. A thick piece of leather over the lap was used as an extra precaution, but all the children displayed excellent knife control. Hopefully they will be passing on some useful safety tips to friends.

The younger children have been using the newly repainted blackboard to record the types and numbers of minibeasts they have found in the woods, and are becoming very good at identifying different types and drawing them.

We have built a small forest loom, made from the hazel that grows in the school woods. Some of the children tried it out for the first time on Thursday and worked as a team to create a mat from dried dock stalks. We will be trying different materials, to identify which make the best mats, then using these as flooring in the dens, and in some wall and roof construction techniques. We can easily scale up the loom if the children want to try some larger projects!

There was also great excitement as the first harvest of forest-grown potatoes were successfully lifted, ready for this week’s big cooking sessions.

Summer holiday forest school sessions
A few spaces are still available. Five hour sessions (10am to 3.00pm) 27th July, and 3rd/10th/31st August. Club members and non-club members all welcome. £20 per session non-members, £18 for members.

If you have any queries or would like to:
• enrol your child in a session
• help to build new resources
• donate materials
• share a traditional skill or craft with the group

please call Jayne on 07984655688 or email jaynewheatley2001@hotmail.com

Please read on to find out about our new online payemnty system, contacting you by email and text, school plays and much, much more…

Please take a lok at this link and if possible pledge too…

http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/the-harbour-studio

Thanks!

Over the summer term our forest school groups have become increasingly interested in improving the jungle space, working with natural materials and creating their own activities, using the new skills they are developing. On Saturday a group of these children, together with parents, grandparents, siblings and volunteer builders and gardeners, came together in the jungle to give the area a well-deserved tidy up, make improvements and clear new ground. With more and more families arriving over the morning the to-do list was soon completed. The work carried out included re-roofing and felting the wooden play house, painting the blackboard, clearing the rubbish and weeds out of the ‘Kid’s Kingdom’, planting trees, tidying up some brush fencing, building two new wood stores, weeding the veg planting area and tidying up the top of the willow arch. The barbecue was then lit and there was the opportunity to share a communal meal and chat in a nice shady spot. Many thanks to everyone who took part, young and old, these improvements would not be possible without your collective generosity and enthusiasm. It was a great day and we all made some new friends.

There will be another family day in the autumn term. If you missed the fun this time, please do come and join us next time.

Summer holiday forest school sessions
Some spaces are still available. Five hour sessions (10am to 3.00pm) 27th July, and 3rd/10th/31st August. Club members and non-club members all welcome. £20 per session non-members, £18 for members.

If you have any queries or would like to:
• enrol your child in a session
• help to build new resources
• donate materials
• share a traditional skill or craft with the group
please call Jayne on 07984655688 or email jaynewheatley2001@hotmail.com

Crowd Funding, drumming, sea exhibitions and much, much more – please read to find out what has been happening around and about our classes… 

Please read on to find out about the summer fair, choir news, a trip to Lundy and much, much more…

Forest school club 21st and 22nd June

In the latest sessions the children went on a hunt for leaves, flowers and other items in the woods, to complete an egg box collection. This activity was an invitation to slow down and take a close look – an opportunity to appreciate the wonderfully diverse shapes and colours that nature produces.

Due to the generosity of a local land owner, we now have a site where we can collect leafy tree branches and fresh bamboo. These new materials will encourage the children to experiment with different ways to build dens and other structures in the jungle. Some of the materials have already been used, including weaving stiff bamboo into the side walls of the willow tunnel. These spars will be in place temporarily, to help to train the willow across the wider gaps.
Hopefully this new site will also provide suitable materials for mat-making on a woodland weaving loom.

Summer holiday forest school sessions
Some spaces are still available. Five hour sessions (10am to 3.00pm) 27th July, and 3rd/10th/31st August. Club members and non-club members all welcome. £20 non-members, £18 members.

If you have any queries or would like to:
• enrol your child in a session
• help to build new resources
• donate materials
• share a traditional skill or craft with the group

Please call Jayne on 07984655688 or email jaynewheatley2001@hotmail.com

Please read on to find out about Sports Day (x2!), the Summer Fair, fairies, life skills, a visit to RMB Chivenor and everything else that has happened around the classes…

We have been able to shift a few things around so that we can try to run the races tomorrow morning. We aim to start at 9.30am and be finished by 11.30am. Children can come to school in their PE kits and you are most welcome to come and watch the races.

Please continue to monitor this website for any last minute news, including checking before you set off tomorrow. 

The children did wonderfully well this morning, but the temperature is rising so we have made the decision to cancel the races this afternoon. At 1pm children will return to their classes and can be collected at 3.30pm.  If you were planning to arrive early to have lunch with your children, please do still come. 

Apologies for any inconvenience caused.

Please read on to find out Sports Day arrangements, what has been happening around the classes and much, much more… 

The arrangements for Sports day are as follows…

Sports Day will (fingers crossed!) take place next Tuesday, the 20th June and activities will start at 9:30.
• All children from Dolphins to Year 6 will be in house groups and will complete twelve activities in their teams. You are welcome to come and support your children and their team mates from 9:30.
• At the end of the activities, we will speedily clear away for the long distance races. Children will need to sit in their classes. Spectators will need to move to the playground side of the field.
• When the long distance races are complete, children will go back to their classrooms. Parents are welcome to collect their children from their classrooms, to share a picnic lunch together.
• The afternoon will be for children in classes 1 – 6. They will sit with their classes and compete in races to score points for their house team. Again, you are welcome to come and support your children.
• When the races are complete, you will be welcome to take your children home, but please make sure that you have let their class teacher know.
• All children will need a sun hat, a water bottle with their name on and sun cream. They can come to school wearing their PE kits, if possible they can wear t-shirts the colour of their house

We look forward to seeing as many of you tehre as possible.

Forest school club 7th and 8th June

The latest sessions offered the opportunity to create a woodland Boggit (stick person with a clay/mud head) and the children responded by being really creative and using leaves, flowers and other items to create facial features, hair and clothes. Some children then made a Boggit house and constructed furniture. The older children have been improving their den building skills, and are now interested in building a child-sized house in the village area, at the top of the woodland site. We will be looking at how buildings have been constructed in the past to help us to decide how we might do this. Plans for the Kids’ Kingdom are also coming along, and the children have been asked to produce some drawings, to help us to understand their design ideas.

Wings (a local charity that gives youths who are not currently in employment, education or training the opportunity to learn a new skill and gain self-esteem) has kindly offered the services of their woodworking team, to build us some sturdy work-benches for our forest woodworking area. Our groups can then use this open-air workspace to create their own bird boxes and insect homes for the site.

We will also be sharing some basic leatherworking skills with the children, so please don’t throw away any old leather jackets or leather furniture covers – we can make useful collecting pouches and tool bags from these!

Things we need for the forest (please).

Scrap leather

We also still need unwanted rope, cord, string, wool etc. (for den building, knot tying practice and crafts).

If you have any queries or would like to:

• enrol your child in a session

• help to build new resources

• donate materials

• share a traditional skill or craft with the group

please call Jayne on 07984655688 Or email jaynewheatley2001@hotmail.com

Tag rugby, forces, drumming and much. much more, so please read on to find out…