Outdoor
Learning
Outdoor Learning
As you may have guessed, here at Peter’s Patch, we are huge advocates for outdoor learning and risky play! We believe that children of all ages should be exposed to risk and given opportunity to learn through trial and error, push their bodies to do new things and develop the skills to risk manage new situations. These are vital skills for the grown-up world, so why would we not encourage their development in the early years.
Our outdoor areas include trees to climb freely, tyres and pallets for construction as well as climbing frames, swings, balance bikes and trikes. There is so much to explore and investigate that all our children want to be outside as often as they can! With two outdoor sessions a day, more if we can manage it, we aim to give children the freedom to play big and learn big!
We want to lead the way in risky play!
As the first nursery with a sessional Forest School in Northern Ireland we really want to embrace the benefit of risky outdoor play. This happens not only in the forest but in the nursery rooms to! Education Preschool, Snug and Afterschool all have access to a fully working work bench complete with real life hammers, nails, saws, and wood! The children manage their risk, wear the right protective clothing and create some fabulous structures from their imagination!
All our rooms are equipped with some form of risky play apparatus – real (child safe) knives in the home corner, indoor swings, climbing frames, woodwork and large-scale construction all pose some risk but that is greatly outweighed by the benefit to the children from experiencing such things!
In every situation our staff access the risk and the benefit to the child and decide on how to proceed in that moment. For example, some children may need support to climb a tree safely, for others they can do so independently. Our team prides itself on knowing the abilities of each child as an individual and being able to offer the support needed accordingly. We support the children to learn and grow in confidence at every opportunity, to try new things and give it a go! We want them to learn the skills of staying safe now, so they can stay safe in the future!
