A make-believe murder hunt involving children aged six and seven will be showcased next month when education experts from all parts of the United Kingdom gather in North Wales.
Teachers and education authority staff will join woodland owners and environmental group representatives to discuss how to use woodlands to educate children at a Forest Education Initiative (FEI) national networking day to be held in Llangollen, Denbighshire on 10 September.
Various woodland-based techniques to help children learn outside the formal confines of the classroom will be highlighted during the day, which has been organised by the Forestry Commission Wales Woodlands for Learning team.
In Wales, more and more children already experience outdoor education as a growing number of schools embrace the ability of woodlands to stimulate learning.
During the networking day, experts will discuss the lessons learned from a Caerphilly FEI cluster group project held from April to July when children from 10 schools across Caerphilly visited their local woodlands for workshops run by Paul Gibbins from Gwent Theatre.
Representatives from every school in Caerphilly were invited to observe as the scene for a woodland mystery was set. Then, using the “Mantle of the Expert” technique the sessions unfolded guided by the children’s decisions and ideas. Giving the children the role of the “expert” empowers them and develops their problem solving skills.
These sessions were designed to improve teachers’ skills to work creatively, dramatically and imaginatively with pupils in an outdoor woodland setting.
The younger children were asked to help a little boy find his “gnomey” which had been stolen by the fairy queen in the woods, and Year 1 and 2 children assumed the role of detectives investigating the murder of the wolf from Red Riding Hood.
Cathy Velmans of the Woodlands for Learning team said, “This technique allows the children to explore real situations, making decisions and acting out how they want things to unfold, but in a safe “imagined” context. This empowerment leads to a sense of being valued and helps to develop self-esteem and confidence.
“The nature of the woodland environment means that they will also be developing their ability to assess and take risks, and will be responding to their own curiosity and developing positive responses to their surroundings.”
The workshops also featured at a conference run by the Education and School Improvement Service (ESIS) in June which provided training for 60 teachers to try out the technique back in their schools.
