Leigh McKay from Holytown nursery class attended the conference about nurturing boys. Leigh says:

This was a wonderful oppotunity to learn how best we can suppport boys in the early years and has also raised my awareness of global citizenship.The course outlined the research that Mindstretchers carried out in Liverpool with pre-school age childen. It was shown that by changing the environment, resources and risk taking opportunities, boys health,and welbeing, motivation and engagement in their own learning was improved.
Global Citizenship programmes exist in order to meet the challenges of the modern world:` it is necessary for children and young people to acquire the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes to adapt and thrive.’ Learning in outdoor environments with natural resources allows children to learn life skills.This helps them make connection to real life contexts. ` Global citizenship encourages chilren and young people to develop and articulate their own informed world view and become active citizens as well as creative critical thinkers’.

During he afternoon of the Mindstretchers course there was a avriety of inspiring resources and activities indoors and outdoors using a range of approaches that provided opportunities for childen to explore real life and make sense of their world. They were given opportunities to think creativelly and responsibly. The Mindstretchers approach to teaching, learning and in particular learning outdoors promotes the principles of Global Citizenship, particularly for boys!