Unlocking the Outdoors- an Outdoor Audit Case Study with Southmead Children’s Centre
Located in the Southmead community, close to the edge of Badock’s Wood, Southmead Children’s Centre benefits from a generous outdoor space. Away from busy nearby roads and fringed by the local allotments the children who attend the nursery access the outdoor areas throughout the year, as part of their regular sessions, as well as having regular opportunities to take part in “Outdoor Learning” sessions on-site.
Working with their Lead Teacher, the team at Southmead began to explore how they could develop their Continuous Provision in the main garden using reflective questions from the Bristol Outdoor Reflective Framework and inspiration from the Certificate in Outdoor Practice.
This involved thinking about the entire process of “going outside” and what it meant for the children, thinking about what “outside’ looked like from their indoor spaces and what the transitional spaces were like to experience as a baby all the way through to being a 4-year old.
Useful prompts included “what does “outside” look like from my perspective when I am 0-3 or 3-4?”
A transition space to the outdoors.
Getting down to the children’s level and asking yourself: What does it feel like to “go outside?” What are the first experiences I have in that space? This felt particular important for these groups of children who had spent so much time indoors during lockdown.
Existing spaces before we started our reflective journey.
The outdoor environment at the Centre had some great quality resources, but they were isolated from any continuous provision and items were stored in sheds which were overflowing or difficult to access.
Storage was an issue!
As a team we looked at questions from Bristol Outdoor Reflective Framework which helped us to think about what needed to happen next:
How do we make sure the outdoor environment is secure, appealing, welcoming, and accessible to all children?
How do we enable children to plan and make decisions and independently access the resources they need?
These questions helped to frame the next steps which included:
- Schemas and outdoor play inset
- Physical development inset.
- Meeting with SLT- what is the vision? Meetings with room leaders- what are your responsibilities? Time for Team Leader to model expectations.
- Visit to Little Hayes Nursery School to look at established, achievable continuous provision.
- On-going support with auditing resources and modelling interactions outdoors.
We used some inset time to rethink storage: Auditing, clearing out, clear storage trays, labels, children being involved and rethinking.
Resources which encourage adult-child interactions.
Storage which the children can access and transport themselves and encourage “huff and puff” in their day.
Further thinking: How do ensure the environment provides for communication friendly spaces and quieter play.
Visiting the outdoor spaces as Little Hayes Nursery School helped us to think about storage, resources and continuous provision
We noticed how accessible, inviting and organised the continuous provision was during our visit and reflected on how this would support the children’s independence skills and would help them to become engrossed in their play.
What happened next ?:
The team identified time in the summer when they could work together to make the changes they had identified. This required planning, team-work, creativity and resourcefulness but the results were worth it! Rachel, the setting’s Team Leader, kick-started the work with the Construction area to show what could be done.
Rachel: “I love my construction are. As soon as I did it the children went running over there I felt proud. It’s simple but effective. I looked online for inspiration at other nurseries. I’m just very passionate about my construction area, I’ve got cones in there now. We need to add more ‘constructioney bits’, big stones, inside the tyres, different loose parts, better storage containers. Some of the team are a bit more productive about setting up the areas, now they can see how the children have been involved with it. It’s one of the first things you see when you walk out, so the children think “Wow”. It’s good now most people can see a vision and I can see it now. We had the resources anyway, the shelter was there and the crates. Other people got involved. When you lead by example it has an impact.”
The team went on to create a cosy space in the shed, a water exploration area, a totally revamped mud kitchen, a sand area, mark-making area, a bug exploration area and gathered resources in another area to promote physical development. These developments enhance their existing growing spaces and Outdoor Learning environment.
This space went from being a locked shed to an inviting cosy, calm space to support transitions from indoors to outdoors.
One of the children (aged 4) commented, “Oh my goodness I like my garden, it’s like a new nursery. It’s like a little house, with a pillow.”
These areas developed from an isolated and under-used mud kitchen to a fully resourced mud kitchen in a “gathering space” to promote communication and interaction skills
This space went from being an under-used water area with few resources to a fully-stocked, accessible invitation to play!
A new exploration area was created.
Resources to support large movements were made accessible instead of being in a shed.
Accessible resources were added to a previously empty sand pit area, the team created a wooden balance and thought about how loose parts would enable the children to explore schemas such as transporting and containing.
These spaces will continue to develop over the coming year as the team learn about the needs of their current cohorts of children but having the areas of focus from the Bristol Outdoor Reflective Framework helped the team ensure their outdoor environment is secure, appealing, welcoming, and accessible to all children.
Contacts
The Bristol Standard Team
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