The real, raw, natural environment of the forest, its trees and its wildlife provide a flip side to the often-sedentary way of modern life with its over-emphasis on screen time and the pressures that creates. The forest also, crucially, increases children’s engagement in and motivation for learning. The rich variety of sensory experience and the expansive possibilities for activities allow children to use their ability to invent and imagine.

 

Awesome Outdoors

Within our exciting Forest School garden at the Norfolk & Norwich Showground, your child can build a sense of independence which has powerful effects on their intellectual, cognitive, physical and emotional development. For example, drawing on the skills of our qualified early years Forest School leader, our children can build a bug hotel, discover and study its occupants, wonder at the way they live, invent stories about them and gain joy from experiencing it all with friends.

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It was the eminent German educator Friedrich Froebel who invented the kindergarten. He believed that "Play is the highest expression of human development in childhood, for it alone is the free expression of what is in the child's soul." Froebel proposed that play thrives in a culture where imagination and creativity are valued, where there is a shared sense of joy in wondering and discovering, where relationships are warm and responsive and where both adults and children are willing to take some risks and be adventurous. He also believed that nature and outdoor play were fundamental to young children’s learning.

 

It is also true that an atmosphere of playful nonsense can be an important way of building close relationships; that children make stories everywhere, with natural materials, small worlds, blocks, sand and water, and much more.  

 

Orchidale Nursery values these principles enormously and aims to put them to work to the benefit of all its children.

 

Take a look at our children thriving in the great outdoors.