Suzanne Cochrane, St Brendan’s Primary School Nursery Class

Both myself and the children are looking forward to the upcoming visit. The children talk about and recall events from the first visit and often ask when/ what day we are returning.

¬¬¬For this visit I had responsively planned to follow the children’s interests from visit one. I wanted to continue using the twigs and sticks (which all children previously took a great interest in). I had planned for the children to use the sticks and twigs to build houses (possibly for the 3 little pigs) and dens to hide in. Unfortunately this had to be changed at the last minute due to the very heavy snow the night before the visit (which completely covered the ground). Instead I gave each child their very own map of Barons Haugh and we simply followed the trail on a walk around the nature reserve. During a discussion before we left the nursery we planned our route, deciding on which points we wanted to visit. We chose to visit the tree nursery and two of the hides. The children all enjoyed spotting various different kinds of ducks from the hides. During the last 10 minutes of the walk back to the bus some of the children began to get tired and complained that they were cold. This quickly ended when we raced up the hill and back to the bus in an attempt to heat us all up. Overall the children did enjoy the experience and loved having their own map to follow around the nature reserve. On future walks I will ensure that I provide the children with binoculars for bird spotting and digital cameras so they can photograph and record their findings.

Number of children who took part in this visit: ¬¬¬8 children

Number of additional staff members who got involved in planning and delivery of this outdoor visit: 1 student and 2 parent helpers

Did you involve anyone from out with the school in planning or delivering this visit? If so, who? 2 parent helpers

I have thoroughly enjoyed taking part in the teaching in nature project and fully intend to continue to use this knowledge in the future. I now feel highly confident in being responsible for groups of children in this type of outdoor setting. As a team we have agreed to take all children together next term allowing every child to benefit from this valuable experience. We are lucky in the fact that we have an entrance to Barons Haugh walking distance from the nursery and therefore travel will not be an issue.