Our Year 8's and a number of Year 5-7 pupils, together with all members of the Edge Grove staff teams were delighted to play host to a large group of visiting parents on a sparkling, sun-drenched morning on Saturday for our first Open Morning of the year. Ed Balfour (Head-elect), our Head Girl, Shona Mistry, Head Boy, Henry Murray, and I welcomed them all during two brief information sessions in the Apthorp Hall before they were taken on individually conducted tours through the school. My sincere thanks to so many members of the teaching, admin, catering and estate staff who helped bring it all together, and to our Year 8 children for their amazing tour-guiding skills so willingly shared during the morning. Our Edge Grove lion could be heard roaring loudly throughout the morning.
We are at that time of the year again when Mother Nature enchants us all by revealing the wonder and mystery of her true colours. As autumn begins to share and shed, and the beauty as revealed through a magical mosaic of changing hues comes to life, it ought to be a time too when we are able to observe and more deeply appreciate so much that the natural world brings alive for us all to enjoy.
Here at Edge Grove the beauty of this captivating spectacle is never too far from our view. These magnificent natural surroundings are alive with so much that is just waiting to be explored. For the children to have this ‘Shangri-La’ type adventure playground in which to come to school provides a unique extension to their learning that promises something beyond what the vast majority of schooling experiences can offer.
Such is the busyness of a typical school day with so many other obvious distractions, and the fact that some of what are the more ethereal appreciations being perhaps a little out of reach of ones so young, it is often left to the adults in their lives to draw attention to these natural splendours.
It is here that the Edge Grove Forest School plays such an important part. Enter Mim Doughty and Samantha Green. These two specialist Environmental teachers deliberately build into the curriculum - for children between Reception and Year 4 - a hands-on learning-from-nature experience that provides so many muddy, mysterious and magical opportunities for the children to receive and to be excited by. In so doing, they encourage an appreciation of the many wonders that only an exposure to an outdoor classroom like ours can conjure up for each child.
Whilst the learning materials and methodologies are largely customised to suit the Edge Grove fauna and flora and all that is naturally available to them, both ladies follow a carefully planned and thought-out programme of work for each year group.
On Friday afternoon last week, the new Forest School shelter was officially opened. This uniquely designed, child-friendly facility has been in the planning phase for many years and thanks to the generous support of the Friends of Edge Grove, monies have been raised and donated in order to make the dream a reality. This one-of-a-kind shelter has been hand-made and specially built by the school’s estate and maintenance team that committed many hours during the school summer holidays to get the job done on time.
What is not lost on anyone, I’m sure, is that with the world’s natural environment in crisis, global warming increasing at an alarming rate, and the critical need for the human race to find ways to bring back some order to it all, the seeds of such motivations have to be sown early on in our children’s lives.
What the Forest School is facilitating opens for us all as parents and grandparents a ‘Narnia Wardrobe’ of opportunity into which to invite the children. By entering this magical natural world they will soon begin to better appreciate the role each can play in promoting a deeper understanding of related responsibilities. Even as young as they are, there is a message that we must get across that we are all in this together and so must each play our part.
Sir David Attenborough puts it like this:
"Bringing nature into the classroom can kindle a fascination and passion for the diversity of life on earth and can motivate a sense of responsibility to safeguard it. No one will protect what they don’t care about; and no one will care about what they have never experienced.
If people lose knowledge, sympathy and understanding of the natural world, they’re going to mistreat it and will not ask their politicians to care for it. It seems to me that an understanding of the natural world is crucial for all of us – after all we depend upon it for our food, for the air we breathe and, some would say, for our very sanity."
Here’s to us all celebrating another magnificent autumn that will serve to remind us all of just how fortunate and blessed we are to receive and be surrounded by its splendour as we drive onto the school grounds each day - and to consciously choose to learn from it. May the week ahead be a blessed and happy one for you all. Kind regards,
Richard Stanley Interim Headmaster
