Learning outside the classroom

Learning Outside the Classroom

Learning outside the classroom is an important part of school life. We are lucky to have spacious grounds with a range of resources to support this. Alongside this, trips and visits play an important part in stimulating curiosity and firing imaginations; we aim to widen children's experiences of the world around them and support them in appreciating and caring for their environment.

In Early Years, children are encouraged to be outdoors as much as possible, learning matches and extends the learning from inside with a focus on learning through play. This is then built on as children progress across the school with outdoor learning taking on more formalised aspects such as story time, drama, field trips, gardening and forest school.

The Swans Nest

This is a special place where children can sit and reflect, there is a story telling chair and enough space for the class to sit and listen. The nest is surrounded by plants and a quiet path that weaves its way through and around.

Gardening

The gardens are available for children to plant and grow things. There are a number of raised beds; children are encouraged to grow produce to use as food either in the school kitchen or as part of their class based cooking.

Orienteering

We are lucky to have orienteering set up on site and this forms part of our PE curriculum. Orienteering develops navigational skills and the ability to co-ordinate directions from one point to another, an important part of map reading.

Solar Panels

In 2020, we were given a generous donation of solar panels after Y5 had been on a climate protest march in Westbury to raise awareness of this important cause. The panels link to a webpage that children can use to monitor usage and levels of solar storage.

Trips and Visits

We want children to be inspired in their learning through firsthand experience and exploration of the world around them and use a range of trips and visits to support this within our curriculum and as part of school life.

Local and surrounding area

We make the most of the local areas through nature walks, local studies of our community and the town within which we live and by walking as much as we can to events in and around Westbury. We also have visits that help build a strong understanding of what it means to live in Wiltshire and be part of the South West. For details of our class trips please see the curriculum maps on our class pages.

Residential Trips

We believe that residential trips are an essential part of developing and growing confidence in children as well as enhancing life experiences and curriculum knowledge. They provide children with aspirational experiences that they might never normally come across.

This year Y4 visited Simondsbath, look how much fun they had: