Wilder School - Beccles Primary Academy

Wild Learning Officer, Katherine Wilson visited Beccles Primary Academy School for their first Wilder Schools day. She delivered an assembly to the whole school, and was impressed with how much the children seemed to know about wildlife already. There were many great ideas offered and the children showed lots of enthusiasm for the project.

Katherine then worked with the Year 2 class. Using a map of the school and its grounds, and a Google Earth image, the class annotated, labelled and drew, onto their own map, all the features that they could remember. This proved quite difficult but they worked hard at thinking about what was in their school grounds.

After playtime, we went outside and completed a habitat checklist. This involved a thorough exploration of the grounds, looking for different habitats and for features like nest boxes and compost heaps.

After lunch, everyone surveyed the grounds for wildlife that we could find. We did an invertebrate hunt and recorded what we discovered. After working so hard, we played some sensory games, to help us get to know the grounds even better, and to get up close to what is in them.

To conclude the day, we returned to the classroom and had a big discussion about how we might further improve the extensive grounds for wildlife. We wrote a big list of ideas. The children agreed to try and work on feeding the birds before Katherine’s next visit.

For our second day, the year 2s were very busy. It’s important that we know what the grounds are like now, and how much of each habitat there is, so we did some measuring! We used trundle wheels and tape measures and tried to work out the area of the field and other sections of the outside areas. They were big spaces and it was a time consuming job – but it was great to do maths in the fresh air.

We spent the rest of the morning checking how suitable the grounds were for certain species. We surveyed to see whether there were the essential things required for animals like robins, hedgehogs, bumblebees and swifts. This will help us to decide if there is anything we can do about what is missing. For example, there was no water found – so the school could put a bird bath in, or build a pond (even just a small one in a sunken washing up bowl).

After lunch, the whole class rotated around making a bird feeder, writing and drawing pictures for a bird factfile and going outside to help to fill the amazing Bug Hotel that had been built by the teaching assistant’s husband. This is a brilliant addition to the school grounds. It was a very productive day.

Day 3 – Today we spent nearly the whole time outside. It was a day of outdoor learning, which demonstrated to the children, the teacher, the TAs and the two student teachers that all subjects can be taught outside.

We began with a story about a bear who hibernated – all the children sat on a sit spot, on a tarpaulin (they were a little disappointed not to be having a picnic – which is what they thought the tarpaulin was for). The story initiated discussion about winter. In groups, the children then completed a scavenger hunt, looking for the signs of winter. Whilst they explored the grounds, they also used their senses to get inspired about winter – using their ideas to make a collection of wintry words. After playtime, we played a game where all the children were given a rhyming word from the story. They had to move around and try to find their rhyming buddy.

Next, they used their wintry words and worked in groups to compose wonderful winter poems. They wrote them in giant chalks on the playground and we went round to each group, to hear the children read them out.

After lunch, the children worked together to build shelters for their animals (small toys) to hibernate in. When they had done this, they had a go at building large dens (big enough to fit their whole group in). They thought about keeping warm, dry and sheltered – just like the bear from the story. This involved team work, science and engineering (with the construction and building of stable structures that could meet the brief) and practical skills like tying knots and hammering in pegs.

Day 4 - we had a bird theme. We went into the grounds and looked for nests, we listened to the birds (whilst trying to sit very quietly) and we looked at the new nest boxes that have been made and put up on the trees, where the wildlife area is going to be constructed. 

We discussed how clever it is that birds are able to build such intricate nests, using their beaks. The children had a go at collecting nesting material with their own version of a beak (tweezers) and building a nest. They thought about safe places to put them, and considered how to protect the eggs.  

After lunch, to fit with the cooking that the children had been doing as part of their learning in the classroom, as requested by the teacher, we began to think about cooking and eating together outside. All the children had a go at getting a fire to start, using fire steels; they gathered different size sticks for fuel for the bigger fire; and they all toasted marshmallows and enjoyed s’mores together.  

Day 5 saw us outside for most of the morning. The class teacher had asked for some ideas about teaching maths, particularly times tables. We played hopscotch with times tables; used numbered stones to make sums; found natural objects to make arrays; practiced times tables in chalk, in multiplication flowers and played sharks (a game where the children needed to understand division and multiplication).

Later, the children designed their own birds. They used pictures, wildlife books and information cards. The children then threaded them on a loop of string (with the idea that they tied them to a whittled stick, but most of them preferred to wear them as bird necklaces! The afternoon continued with them finishing some other crafts and practicing the running order of the assembly.

At the end of the afternoon, to the whole school and to the Helping Hands group, the year 2 class put on a brilliant assembly. Every child spoke. They talked about the Wilder Schools project and explained what they were hoping to do in the school grounds. The Helping Hands group are offering huge support (both with contacts they have, with fundraising ideas and with funds already raised). This was all discussed in an after-school meeting.

Myself and a colleague started the Summer Term off with a PD day for all Beccles Primary school teaching staff. Our plan was to run a relaxed and fun day, whilst sharing as much information as possible, in the time we had. We hoped to increase confidence in the teachers, and give them plenty of ideas about how to take learning outside. The teachers participated in some invertebrate hunting and we showed resources and talked through some plant sessions (including playing field plants and the parts of a flower).

After a coffee break, we ran through lots of lesson ideas for taking maths outside the classroom and the staff used some of the resources we’d prepared and had a go at some of the activities. We moved on to thinking about art. The teachers had all heard of Andy Goldsworthy. We explained how he creates his art work and some teachers produced their own interpretations. Others had a go at Hapa-zome, the Japanese art of dying with leaves and flowers (involving bashing the juices from the leaves and petals, onto cloth).

The communal lunch, a ‘pot luck stew’ and damper bread, all cooked over the fire, was a great opportunity to chat, consolidate and to discover further areas that the teachers wanted support with. It was also valuable to have time back, after Easter, for everyone to catch up with each other, important for staff well-being.

There wasn’t long left after lunch but we whizzed through some ideas for delivering sessions outside, to cover history, geography and English. In groups, the staff went on a scavenger hunt around the grounds, whilst also collecting springtime words. They used these to create a poem, chalked on the playground.

We concluded, with the staff being given some time, in mixed year groups, to discuss the coming weeks, and the topics that were going to be covered. The Head teacher gave them the challenge, to have at least one outdoor learning session a week. We helped with some planning ideas and hope that the staff were left feeling motivated.