ABSTRACT
Our case study tells the story of how our children’s learning experiences have informed their planning/design of their new Forest School site. Former pupils designed and created our existing small garden. Since then we have built on our original philosophy of “Going Out To Learn” whereby children, their families and staff explore their local parks and the many rich natural heritage and coastal locations across Central Scotland. This case study looks at how we have supported children to use their nursery “learning adventures” to both country and coastal locations – where we take children on day trips to local attractions – to help plan the design of our new, satellite Forest School. The satellite Forest School will mean that we can take additional children onto our register but they will be based outdoors for the full day in designated location nearby the indoor nursery. When built, this natural space will add 32 additional 30-hours-per-week places for three- to five-year-old children. It will also offer the potential for continuing professional learning opportunities around outdoor learning and pupil voice for other practitioners. It was our intention to ensure the children in our current indoor nursery contributed to the plans for the new Forest School. In this case study, we describe how we facilitated children’s voice in this project.
