Working with Children in a Natural Environment, Early Childhood Educators Re-evaluate their Theory and Practice

This film documents research undertaken by Walkergate Early Years Centre and Sightlines Initiative into the best way to support young children's learning.

The dvd also includes extra professional development material on downloadable pdf files.

This booklet tracks the development of one of the many ideas that the children conceived. Lots of theories and stories emerged through the inspiration the natural evviroment had of the children's creative and curious minds. An interplay between staff and children, the environment and the imagination.

Have you ever wondered what would happen

• if children were given day-long, year-long opportunities to be in nature and explore wildness?
• if educators recognised how daring and imaginative children become in the wild outdoors?
• if educators and children, working together, used their classroom as a studio for the exploration and exchange of fascinatig ideas and questions?

In this book you will find some answers to these questions - and to many more.  [ downloadable flyer ] 

Robin Duckett & Mary Jane Drummond

... video from The Rising Sun Woodland Preschool project.

"A dragon in a tree, blossoming bluebells and daffodils, fungi, an enormous muddy pond, a chance to make fire...

Whenever the nursery children from Redesdale First School in North Tyneside go down to the nearby Rising Sun Countryside Park, they're sure of a few surprises.

Their weekly visits have introduced them to the great outdoors and allowed them to discover it at their own pace - and to discover new talents and abilities along the way.

It makes for enchanting viewing, as the children discover the magical environment of the woodland and make it their own. In the process, different individuals hone different skills and gain in confidence." (from Alison Mercer, Nursery World 2001)

A transformative film for early educators wanting to ground their creative practice in nature.

Vasily Sukhomlinsky

Sukhomlinsky's account of how he educated young children in a Ukrainian village during the aftermath of the Second World War. 

ReFocus is the UK network of early childhood educators, artists and others influenced in their practice by the preschools of Reggio Emilia

Articles include:

• 'Woodland Kids' by Linda Lines
• 'Making Learning Intriguing' by Ed Harker
• 'Bilston Nursery School' by Catherine Webb
• 'Practically speaking - Clay reigns supreme' by Elaine Mason
• 'Creature Worlds' by Chris Holmes and Elaine Mason
• 'The Life of an Idea' by Robin Dickett and Elaine Mason
• 'A knowledge building project about birds' by Ann Aberg
• 'In the Best Interests of Children' by Jenny Brain

ReFocus is the UK network of early childhood educators, artists and others influenced in their practice by the preschools of Reggio Emilia

Articles Include:

• ' Learning from Laos: Children and environments' by Architect John Waldron
•  'ReMida Denmark: The function of materials in places of imagination' by  Karen Eskesen
• 'Danish Preschools UK Study Week reviews' by Sarah McGahern, Sue Cleaver and Tricia Yates
• 'Focus on Herefordshire' by Sue Peasgood
• 'Elemental materials'  by Robin Duckett 
• The Drama of Clay'  by artist Sally Brown
• 'Open Space, Open Air, Open Minds' by (Kingswood Centre) by Rachel Wells
• 'Sophie's Story' by Trish Prescott and Wendy Lowe

ReFocus is the UK network of early childhood educators, artists and others influenced in their practice by the preschools of Reggio Emilia

 Articles include:

• 'The House of Objects' by  Elaine Mason
• The 'Inside-Out' Project: Can the physical environment be a 'teacher' in itself?' by Mary Featherstone
• 'Focus on Buckinghamshire' by  Yvonne Davies
• 'Learning Journeys: Green Croft Children's Centre'  by Catherine Davenport
• 'Uncertainty and Knowing' by Annette Poulson and Cath Dennis
• 'Placing and Arranging, No Glue' by Solveig Morris
• 'The Role of the Educator is to Stir Things Up'  by Marika Gedin
• 'Threads: The Real and Hidden World of Nature' by Linda Lines

ReFocus is the UK network of early childhood educators, artists and others influenced in their practice by the preschools of Reggio Emilia

Articles include:

• 'Professional Amnesia: A suitable case for treatment'  by  Mary Jane Drummond
• 'Acting Up: Leadership and responsibility'  by Peter Dixon
• 'Playing and Learning Outdoors'  by Jan White
• 'Pedagogical Documentation' by Chris Holmes and Chris Merrick
• 'Community of Enquiry: Do hedgehogs dream?' by Adam Turner
• 'The Energy of Conviviality and Imagination: Exploring and developing ideas through dance and music' by Maria Mernin and Cath Reding
• 'Acting up: Leadership and Responsibility' by Peter Dixon

ReFocus is the UK network of early childhood educators, artists and others influenced in their practice by the preschools of Reggio Emilia

Articles Include:

• The Fascinator Trap - Jane Bravery
• Exploring in a Cambridge Forest - Ruth Sapsed and Filipa Pereira-Stubbs
• What's the problem, guys? - Mariette Heaney
• Exchange and dialogue with Sweden - Emma Pace
• Ready-packaged or well-rooted? - Annica Wennstrom
• The Wonder of Learning: The Cultural Challenge from Reggio - Speech by Harold Gothson
• Interview with Jan Millikan - Lella Gandini, Elin Swedenmark and Judith Allen Kaminsky
• Spirals - Kirsty Liljegren

ReFocus is the UK network of early childhood educators, artists and others influenced in their practice by the preschools of Reggio Emilia

Articles include:

• Ways into the Woods by Deb Wilenski
• Inspiring Creativity by Johanna Scott
• Reggio Children International Network by Debi Kyte Hartland/Emma Pace
• Traces from Reggio by Margot Meuwig and Tienke Van Der Werf
• Venturing out by Chris Holmes
• Opening up to ideas by Tracey Hutchinson
• Focus on North Yorkshire by Paula Willis
• Artists' Interventions by Penny Hay
• Materials and Imagination by Gail Alder
• Watch the Ripples Spread by Andrea Gray
• A Community of Learners by Nicki O'Brien and Vicki Whittaker
• The Developing Brains and Minds of Young Children by Mary Fawcett

A Woodland Children booklet: it tracks the development of one of the many ideas that the children conceived, and is an interplay between staff and children, the environment and the imagination.

The narrative focusses on the growth of one boy's imagination, and the developing relationship, through it, between him and the group.  Included also is a book of his stories, written two years after his 'mouse house' project.