Our Six Learning Roots Curriculum

Our holistic approach focuses on supporting the growth of your child’s body, mind, and soul using the outdoors as our nature-led, wall-less learning ground.

  • Body

    The body is crucial for health and is a dynamic vessel for early years learning.

    Children learn primarily via movement and sensation. Only when feeling comfortable in their body are they receptive to learning. Being outdoors means plenty of exercise and strength building as well as creating healthy, long-lasting habits for future growth.

  • Mind

    Equal emphasis placed on mental development and building resilience.

    Our focus is to support children in ‘how’ to think, not ‘what’ to think so they become problem-identifiers and solution-finders. The outdoors is a natural spark for curiousity. The changing seasons provide cognitive stimulation, especially for speech, language and knowledge.

  • Soul

    Promoting wellbeing and positive social skills.

    Formulating a sense of self is key, along with building character and values for lifelong guidance in life. We create time to slow down and connect with our inner-self through breathing, mindfulness and yoga. By cultivating their conscience calmness and kindness naturally develop.

  • Nature

    Our green, wall-less classroom is a mini adventure set up for fun and exploration.

    Safe in nature children are free to play and discover while getting hands-on and dirty. Immersed in wildlife there is a fascination and understanding of nature and living things. We hope this experience encourages children to become caring, future stewards of our planet.

  • World

    First-hand experiences are the best way to understand the world.

    Doing things first-hand is a more powerful method than listening to what you are told, or see on screens. Through project learning, testing, and experimenting we learn. We invite friends and experts to visit, along with celebrating all different kinds of events across the year.

  • Expression

    Every child has a creative spirit to unleash.

    Whether through drawing, dancing, role-play or other these mediums are a great way for children to develop thoughts, ideas and conceptualise in a ever more complex world. Participating in arts, crafts and assembly helps grow life-long passions and even future life skills.

The EYFS Curriculum

We also cover the EYFS curriculum set out by Ofsted. You can read more about it here.

Traditionally the EYFS is taught inside classrooms but we find the outdoors provides an enriching environment to achieve these learning goals.

Physical

    • Active and interactive

    • Coordination, control and movement

    • Healthy habits and self-care

  • In the spacious outdoors, children can jump, swing, balance, dig, build, run, and roll safely. Using natural objects like sticks, leaves, and mud, children get physically involved. A love for movement and being active develops which is great for future health.

Communication & Language

    • Rich language environment

    • Confidence and skills to express

    • Vocabulary, speaking and listening

  • The outdoors provides freedom to speak and a need to be heard. Whether during daily routine rules and instructions or play, children are exposed to a range of vocabulary and answer “how” and “why” questions about their experiences. The ever-changing environment brings plenty of new vocabulary.

Personal, Social & Emotional

    • Positive sense of self and for others

    • Respect and forming relationships

    • Self-reflection and feelings

  • Being outside encourages lots of play and activities with each other, creating ample opportunities to cooperate, support, share, show sensitivity to others’ needs, and take turns. Cloud gazing is great for self-reflection too.

Literacy

    • Linking sounds and letters

    • Reading and writing

    • Access to books and poems

  • Nature walks and treasure trails are great for reading and children love spelling and writing using sticks in the ground. Even though we’re outside we have books and other literacy materials and engage with. On the colder days, we do stories around the campfire.

Maths

    • Counting

    • Adding and subtracting

    • Shapes, spaces and measuring

  • There are plenty of opportunities outdoors for counting and understanding numbers, weight and measurements. Gathering sticks and pinecones is popular and provides a great way to add, subtract and learn about doubling and halving through the placement of natural elements. We also come across all kinds of shapes and patterns in nature.

Understand the World

    • Physical world

    • Learning about community, people and places

    • Experiencing environment and technology

  • Children are able to get hands-on with objects, materials, and living things including bugs, worms, birds, plants, trees, and much more. Each season brings new weather and wildlife so there is plenty of interaction and learning. We sometimes use gadgets to see and understand further too, for example, bird spotting with binoculars and insect identification with magnifying glasses.

Expressive Arts and Creativity

    • Using a range of materials and media

    • Sharing thoughts, ideas and feelings

    • Using art, music, role-play and movement

  • Nature, animals, and creatures spark plenty of ideas for singing songs, making music, dancing, and role-playing. Children love to build, and create dens, mud kitchens, and bug hotels too. The outdoors lights up curiousity and imagination to express limitless thoughts and ideas.