Member Article

Red House School joins global outdoor movement

Pupils at a leading independent school in Teesside are taking their learning adventures outdoors in celebration of Outdoor Classroom Day.

Red House School in Norton, Stockton on Tees will be getting involved in Outdoor Classroom Day, a global movement taking place on May 17th, and will be celebrating its concept with a full week of educational outdoor activities across the school.

Building on the success of the campaign in 2017, when over two million children were involved from thousands of schools over 100 countries, the movement aims to get even more children playing and learning outside in 2018.

Claire Reily, art teacher at Red House School will be helping to co-ordinate the week’s activities across the school. She said: “As well as it being highly engaging, the benefits of outdoor learning include improvements to a child’s physical and mental health, as well as their social communication skills, fine motor skills, independence and resilience.

“At Red House, we pride ourselves in providing a nurturing environment that allows us to capture and develop the curiosity of each child across the school. Outdoor Classroom Day is a great way to introduce the children to new experiences and a new-found appreciation for nature.”

Activities for the week will include a cross curricular project to make a sound garden out of materials found in nature, mini beast identifying, exploring shadows and the power of the sun, as well as studying the irrigation techniques of the Xia Dynasty. Children will also get creative by making ‘small worlds’ which will based upon children’s storybooks and also experiment with art pointillism.

There will be the opportunity for children to take part in a game of Pétanque, a historic part of French culture and the ‘Bikeability’ scheme, which sees pupils improve their skills and confidence in cycling.

In addition, Year six students will also be taking a trip to Carlton Outdoor Education Centre in North Yorkshire for archery, forest skills and weaselling.

Claire continued: “We love seeing how excited the pupils get when given the opportunity to learn in a new environment and we truly believe it helps their education thrive. We hope we can continue to get involved in the Outdoor Classroom Day global movement for years to come!”

For more information about Red House School or to arrange a tour contact Claire Bellerby, Head of Admissions on 01642 558119. The school can also be found on Twitter: @RedHouseSchool, Facebook: @redhouseschooluk and Instagram: @redhouseschool, or visit www.redhouseschool.co.uk.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Harvey & Hugo .