Child led learning or how it feels to not be in charge

Giving control over content and intent of play and learning to children

Child-led learning sounds like it should be easy, just see what the children are interested in and excited by and then follow it. Actually, when you put it like that it is easy and in the context of outdoor learning  allowing the children to lead can be wonderfully simple to implement. There is so much to discover and interact with. It is hard NOT to be learning.  Where child led learning becomes more challenging is in the personal internal battles you face as a practitioner.

I am thinking for example about a time when a group of children decided they would have a ‘bug market’ where they could trade things with each other. They decided they could bring things from home, or trade conkers, interesting leaves and other found natural things.  They asked us to provide materials for signs, sheets to set things out on and they left the session really excited about the upcoming Bug Market.

It was only after they left that we started to realise the gaps we had left open, what sort of things would they bring from home? What were the ethics of trading live insects? Who would decide what trade was fair? How would we agree the rules?

One of the key lessons I have learnt over the years is to never imagine that I am in charge. It can be a real challenge to master my ego, not listen to the voice that says “Well, I know best because I am an adult.”  Or allow the part of me that already sees how this could go horribly wrong to be too dominant. 

When the children arrived for the Bug Market it seemed that the children had all understood what the rules were to be without me having to get them into a discussion. No-one brought their favourite toys to swap, you don’t have insects in a bug market, (and apparently I should have know this!) and the adult role seemed to be to keep currency moving around as more people wanted to be stall holders than to barter. 

But child led learning doesn't start the moment you decide to step back. When I walked into a woodland with a group of nursery children, most of whom had never been in a woodland before, it’s almost like they couldn't see the potential, and didn't know yet how to interact with it. It took a few sessions of going back to those same woods, with practitioners and staff providing encouragement and permission to the children to collect things they saw, asking them to describe their finds and to interact with them, to follow trails of feathers and touch mossy stumps and smooth leaves. Then the children started to notice and to lead. A long worm stopped us in our tracks as we walked up the path. The children are acutely observant, “it is coming towards me,” “now it is going to you,” “it is a letter C for Callum” “it feels sticky, like a fish” They put things in its path to see if that changes the direction it goes in.

When, during the following session we brought magnifying glasses and pictures of the minibeasts they could find they responded really positively and were quickly immersed and interested. Child-led learning can take time to emerge, as group dynamics settle and the children gain the confidence to lead and to believe their ideas will be listened to.  This is one of the reasons why effective outdoor learning takes place over time.

They start to see your role as a provider of resources, ideas, ways and means rather than the instructor, which can often run counter to the normal relationships they have with teachers and other adults.

The natural environment is an unpredictable place, you never know what you will find. You can plan and prepare for certain learning experiences to take place, and they may happen, but what you cannot plan for and only be receptive to, is the unexpected.

"In preparing for battle, I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable."

–General Dwight D. Eisenhower

Sometimes like with the Bug Market, the children are explicit about the direction they want to take, sometimes child-led learning comes about by following a particular line of questioning and sometimes an observation is the key. In the first week in the woods with another group, William picks up a sharp stone and uses it like a tool; another child watches him and copies, using a stick with the same motion. It occurs to me they are whittling. Even though I don’t usually bring tools in this soon, their behaviour intrigues me and I bring potato peelers for them to whittle with for the next session. 

Outdoor play and outdoor learning provide enough scope for each child to be following his or her own line of enquiry and for them to collaborate with other children and adults. But those internal battles I mentioned... how do you feel about how you are perceived in your role? Not by the children, but by other practitioners, visitors, parents and parent helpers, a passing head teacher or an Ofsted inspector. What happens when the lines of enquiry that the children choose to follow includes squishing living things, making weapons, having battles....? 

*This post, written by Lily, was originally published on forestschools.com in Oct 2010 and is republished here with their kind permission. 

FSTM2012 another wonderful Forest school tweet meet

I know lots of wonderful woodland folks, Forest School practitioners, teachers, bushcraft enthusiasts, wood workers and they are the people in my life who keep me inspired in my work. Some of these people I 'know' but I have never actually met in real life. One of the drawbacks of working on my own or with others only for short projects or training courses is not always having people to bounce ideas off when I need them. Shortly after I went self employed I discovered the joy of social media for finding virtual colleagues to ask for help, swap ideas or links to research, and get into ludicrous conversations which lighten up the working day, just like in a real office! I use twitter and more often facebook and the FEI facebook page  and this blog to maintain these sort of relationships. But very special times come around, like this last weekend where lots of people got together for the Forest School tweet meet, #FSTM2012.

Hosted by the wonderful Alex from Schola Foris at her site; Wacky Woods  in Cheshire 40 odd  Forest school practitioners, woodland workers, their families, children came together to play in the woods.

There was drumming with scrap instruments and djembes.

A wander through the woods with an ecologist talking  about and grazing on plants.

 Leigh from Bushcraft Reunion  shared lots of skills, working with Jo's sack to make an ace chair and building a hungi pit oven to cook some big lumps of pork. 

There was so much creativity in the woods, making felt, hapa zome, weaving with sticks, upcycling the milk bottles into doves, carving and whittling and plenty of cooking, baking eating and chatting. 

The thing that I really liked was how informal everything was. People did what they needed to do and found others to do it with. The ethos behind Forest School's is to create something that is participant led, the environment, the potential and the resources are prepared, but what you do and who you do it with and when is totally up to you. How wonderful to find a CPD opportunity that totally reflects the ethos.

The children and dogs on site formed a number of packs, and it was so wonderful to see how the children thrived in the atmosphere, there were adults around who were interested enough in them to add the elements they needed like catapults, chocolate biscuits, bubble wands and plasters.

But they spent most of their time doing their own thing, on the structures, on the zip wire, and hanging out.

And there was mud! Oh yes, a wacky woods staple! 

Of course no gathering like this couldn't be expected not to go on late into the evening around the fire. The whole weekend was so nourishing and inspiring. Connecting me with people I know but have never met in real life and old friends.

Such a wonderful weekend, I can't wait until next year!  

Thanks to the Wacky woods team for hosting us, Leigh, Adam and most of all the incomparable Alex. 

Even more photos to be seen on my facebook page here

WaKiGa - out in nature with a Waldkindergarten

I recently spent a week in Hamburg and Berlin with a study tour for play professionals co-ordinated by ip-dip.com and www.meynellgames.org. The tour took us to scrapstores, adventure playgrounds, public parks and playspaces, community provision, waldkindergarten and green school playgrounds.

For me the Waldkindergarten was an exciting opportunity to compare what happens in Germany with what happens in the UK. On Friday morning we travel to a park on the northern outskirts of Berlin, There is a gathering of parents in the corner of the park; some with smaller babies, some on bikes but all have a child aged between 18months to 6 years old. Some drop the kids with another parent, some wait as the group gathers.. We are at the daily gathering point for Robin Hood WakiGa or waldkindergarten which began in 2005 as the only English German speaking waldkindergarten in Berlin. The children all meet here but whilst the smaller ones stay in the park the older ones get on the bus to go deeper in the woods, fields and forests.

By the time everyone is gathered there are 23 children about 1/2 of which are in the older group. Some parents are still here and the group goes into a circle. This is in what is clearly their regular spot judging by the clear circle of bare earth where they stand. Christa, the group leader introduces their British guests and they sing some songs whilst waiting for any others to arrive. The parents leave the children here and we follow the older group, the buzzards, to the bus stop across the park leaving the little ones, the sparrows, in the park. Picking up a couple of extra children on the way we have 15 children in total.

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On the bus we are briefed not to help the children climb trees or to find the solution for them but allow them to sort out their own problems. Christa gives the example of a new member of staff who came out for the first time and saw a child trying to fish a plastic bag out of the stream with a short stick. The adult gave the child a longer stick and said 'here try this'. Christa says this experience meant that the child did not get to make the learning that was possible in this situation. There was so much more learning that could have happened without the adults intervention.

We get off the bus and walk through the fields to the wood area. The children walk up to 6km depending in the site they go to ( they have a number of sites that are all accessible by bus) As they walk along the road some pick the dandelions and chat to each other. Some are silent. The second we are across the busy main road however there is a rush of children along the track. This stops the second we get to the gate where the best sticks are to be found. Some choose a stick and they run ahead, stopping whenever they get to any crossroad. 

At the crossroad, while we are waiting for the others to catch up I get into a lazer fight with Simon who is princess Leia and his friend who is darth vader. I am killed about 20 times. 

As they walk along the gravel path lots of the children make patterns with sticks and their hands in the gravel. Christa stops every time anyone shows an interest in anything. There is no expectation they will go quickly.

Some children find small lizards in the grass, one girl carries a lizard across the field to where they have breakfast. Christa asks if them if they can take the lizard back home, so they cross all the way back the field to take him home. The focus is not on what is easiest for the adult but what is right for the child and the environment. 

At breakfast everyone gets some of their fruit to put on a shared plate and eats the rest of their breakfast. Each child carries his or her own breakfast, lunch and change of clothes in their rucksack.

As we eat breakfast Christa initiates a conversation about things we can hear. "The birds", "the traffic", one boy says a parrot! They try and distinguish different sounds and then one child says he can smell a fox, the group sniff the wind to catch a smell of the fox. Christa goes around the group asking each in turn. 

Then she asks them to tell us what they can do in the forest. They say they can play, whittle, climb, throw boomerangs, go by bus, find animal tracks, listen to bird sounds, look at animals, play down by the river side, plant plants at the garden school and 'do wishing good for the plants'. This relates to something that had happened earlier in the week when they had planted a lot of vegetable seeds in a garden school and the children had sung songs for them and wished the plants well. This was something that was really important to Christa, but she felt that when something was really important to her then the children also really listened and engaged.

One child says they can do a lot of dangerous things in the kindergarten, Christa asks them, "what about the dangerous things; like using a knife, what are the rules?" The children tell us they have to be an arms length and a tool away for whittling, they need to cut away from themselves, you need to put the knife away afterwards. There is lots of talk from the children about how they have had to ask for plasters and how they have cut themselves. The knives they use are small folding opinel knives and these are the only equipment Christa has brought for this session.  

Another rule is that children are allowed 1m from the ground for climbing. Although in reality they seem to be much much higher. The smallest girl in the group has climbed up the split tree trunk that runs all the way up from the ground. She is pretty high up and is holding onto a branch that runs vertically up from the trunk. She is there for a very long time, smiling back at first when I smile at her. After a while she starts to look perplexed and a little distressed but not very strongly so I decide to match my interventions with the staff here. She is holding on tightly and frowning. She is sitting like this again for a long time. I am watching some of the bigger girls crossing the small river by shuffling along a pipe, but whenever I turn back she is still in the tree frowning. Then suddenly she shuffles around and gingerly climbs back down. 

Can you even spot her in the tree? 

She is probably a very young 3 year old but has been given space and time to really manage the risks for herself. I think I would have intervened much earlier, probably when she was looking a little upset rather than leaving her to work through it for herself. Similarly I think I would have allowed the shuffling across the pipe but positioned myself much much closer in order to 'support' those children. But actually they didn't need or want this intervention. This makes me reflect on my own intervention and whether I am removing opportunities for problem solving  and independence from the children I am working with even though I feel like I allow more than most settings there is still further to go. The children can go out of sight but they can't go out of ear range and spend a lot of time away from the adults with each other or by themselves. 

Christa says "the children have a deep level of learning, they notice things that other children are not even aware of." she is right in this, Dave was walking with a boy who is chatting with him, Dave watches as the child turns to pick up an interesting stick to show him even though the stick was in the opposite direction to where the child was facing. It is this level of awareness and peripheral vision that is really interesting and I am struck by how the outdoors and woodland environment encourages this. 

I like the way Christa describes why she lets the children work things out for themselves. "When you know the answer, the in-box on your head gets closed. So teaching is like a trickster." She gives an example of finding some badger tracks, the children did not know what they were, but made many suggestions including rabbit and giraffes, talking all the time about size and shape and type of tracks. Later she showed them a book about a badger but without linking this to seeing the badger tracks, when the children looked at the footprint again they then had another possible answer which they connected together for themselves. "Learning is about learning to learn rather than learning to count. The children will learn to count in school, but in Kindergarten if they do what they will be doing in school their motivation for learning will go down."

She tells us about instances of differences with parents in the past. When it rained some parents wanted the children to stay inside and learn English, this wasn't felt to be supporting the ethos of the project and "it is this sort of non agreement within a cooperative which makes projects stuck." The pedagogues felt frustrated as their expertise wasn't being valued in this decision making process.When the project originally set up some parents could not deal with all the mud and because the project was working as a cooperative the project split into two. 

The waldkindergarten pedagogy started in the 90's in Germany with some kindergartens that didn't have a place to work from "Except maybe a caravan, but you are only allowed to take care of children for 5 hours with a caravan, for any longer there are so many regulations. So this wasn't possible with a caravan, but when parents have long day at work, they need to have kindergarten for longer." Waldkindergarten's in Germany examined the legislation and realised that without a building there weren't the same issues. So now they work most of the time in the open air. If it rains they move into the bushes and all the children have warm clothes and waterproofs. "In a room everything is very loud, outside you work with nature and you don't have to tidy up."

The Waldkindergarten don't ask permission to use the land. They make sure they leave as they found it and try and work with a deep respect to nature. From the kindergarten many children go into mainstream school. There is a nature school locally and one of the ex-kindergarten child who goes to the nature school told Christa "Today I learnt my multiplication up to 200, then to relax I went outside and made a fire."

The waldkindergarten movement draws strength from a few German writers and supporters like Andreas Weiber who Christa says is Germany's equivalent of Richard Louv. Much of the work they do draws on the work of Gerald Hüeters research on the brain. There has been some research comparing kindergartens to waldkindergarten. And the developmental outcomes for children are seen to be very good. For example more than 20% of children going into school from mainstream kindergarten can't move in a backwards direction. The recent Pisa report comparing educational outcomes across the countries has caused a shake up in Germany which was seen to be doing quite badly. This means it is quite hard to put forward the wood pedagogy as the decision makers didn't make the connection between how well the Swedish and Danish did and the outdoor pedagogy in those countries. But instead they are putting the pressure onto schools, which in turn falls onto the kindergarten and preschools. This report was part of what influenced the policy that has extended the length of the school day.  Parents pay €60 per month per child. There isn't a rule about how many adults need with a group. It can be one in the first and last hour. In the beginning they took lots of things, tools and resources and shelters for when it rained. Now they bring nothing but a few tools and maybe a bit of string but everything else they can make.

In this WaKiGa the spiritual connection to nature is particular to Christa and her connection with wilderness and mother earth. She is inspired by Tom Brown jr, Coyote teaching, the wilderness pedagogy and recent training with John Young who has been making contact with the wilderness schools in Germany and is now coming to England She describes it as 'making strings to nature'. "When you see a mole you make a thin string, when you get closer to it it makes a stronger rope. This gives you a level of resilience." 

During the time while the adults sit and talk, children pop over and check in with Christa regularly. "look Christa, my sock is wet." "ah, so it is!" The childshows Christa her wet socks then goes back to play, "A lot of teachers would have taken the sock off, that's not what she wanted she wanted to show me and have body contact." The children are very relaxed during the session. Christa says she lets them walk until they have 'let their power out.' When they are calm they have breakfast otherwise it wil be a tricky day. When it is windy they walk more, one morning when they had lots of excess energy they went to the pond and hit the ice until all the energy was out.

Whilst we are sitting in the breakfast circle on of our group, Claire is fiddling with a stick in the grass. One of the oldest boys notices and we have a conversation about sticks; 'stock' in German, a language game develops, pointing to our three sticks; "stock stock stick. Stock, stick stick. Stock, stick, stock." This develops into digging at the long grass with sticks, which then develops into a farming game, raking the dead grass like hay. The boy co-opts two of my colleagues into the game telling them when they can have a break and stop for coffee. Another boy in his peer age group comes over and is invited to join the 'work' a much smaller girl wants to join in too and us given a stick to work with. He spends the whole morning at this work and creates big pile of grass which he surrounds with sticks.

When Christa wants to call the children together she calls out "Cuckoo cuckoo." The children respond. We have to leave so we scramble and slip across the stream and up the bank back to the road. The children are staying there a bit longer before heading back to their building for lunch and the afternoon. But first they want to bury the mole found by the big tree. The mole looks like it has been killed by a bird of prey. One girl finds there are number of organs and bits of fluff stuck to the tree above. They sniff the dead mole, examining it's wounds, looking at it's teeth, one boy is fascinated by the size of it's feet which he uses to dig the ground with.They are going to make grave for the mole. 

Read my journal from Hamburg and Berlin here:
Mobily trip journal

Yes, and... Play and learning.

Sometimes I feel like describing ‘play’ is like drawing the wind. You can recognise it, you know what it looks and feels like, but it is somehow nebulous and hard to pin down. I have been working in the field of play and playwork for nearly fifteen years and yet I have still to find just one way to describe what play is. I love the fact that all you need is a handful of playworkers (and maybe a bottle of something) and ask, “What is play?” and they’ll be at it for hours!

A few weeks ago My friend Kirsty and I delivered a workshop for the Institute of Outdoor Learning on playfulness and flow states. We were exploring how an understanding of theories can help learners in a range of environments Looking for 

"Play' is a term employed in psychology and ethology to describe to a range of voluntary, intrinsically motivated activities normally associated with recreational pleasure and enjoyment”¹

Which sums up the feeling we were trying to convey through our workshop, that children and young people get so much out of being able to direct their activities into something that holds their involvement, that it is important for children and adults too to be allowed to play. In recent years I have been doing more work in formal learning environments and I really see the value of the spirit of playfulness I bring to the work I do. The aspect of play or playfulness that really appeals to me, especially when I was considering how it motivates and engages learners, is the state of immersion and engagement that a child at play can enter, when the real world is lost to them and they understand totally what the rules are. Even if there are other agendas that the teachers or facilitators are trying to manage, there are still benefits to following the children into that zone, that place of immersion.

I heard a comedian talking about improvisational comedy and  he was saying how improv can be made to work if the people taking part in it follow the rule of “Yes! and....” basically, if you take whatever is offered and try to build on then you get to a more interesting, and in their case funny and surreal, place. That really strikes a chord! I know from my own teaching, training and playing that when something comes up from the group you have two choices, one is to try and shut it down and bring people back. The other is to accept what is offered, “Yes! and....” to go with the new direction. Let things come back to the starting point naturally and allow people feel more included and involved with what they are learning. Even when there is a very specific outcome you can still get to the same end point by following the meanders that include other people’s ideas rather than sticking only with your own route.

Playfulness for me is about being responsive and flexible, embracing the unpredictable nature of the world and the people in it. What do play and playfulness mean to you? 

A change to play- based learning. A parent's perspective.

I have been working closely with a school as they went through some massive changes. When I first worked with them in March last year the Foundation stage; nursery and reception class were two separate entities. Hilary who leads the unit, has been inspired by a trip to Reggio Emilia in Italy and the approach they have for their Early Years learning and teaching. 

She made some phenomenal changes to their learning environment; merging the space to create a large free flow area, inside and out which hosts 120 children in a rich creative play-based learning environment. 

My role has been to take on provocations, projects that has emerged from the children's interests and ideas and also taking small groups to a local woodland. The group I take to the woods those children who have been identified as needing a 'boost' for one reason or another. Children who need additional support, children who might have less confidence or resilience or children who it was recognised would really thrive in the woodland environment. 

The provocations I have been involved in include a building project, a fire project and at the moment we are bringing a carving project to a close and waiting for a visit from Kim, Rob and billy big saw to realise our carving plans on a big scale.

The transition for the setting hasn't always been an easy one. Staff have found it challenging and some parents were really skeptical. But they have persevered and are just completeing their first year with their new approach. 

One of the mums recently wrote a letter, which she and the staff are happy to share. It is so insightful, observant and encouraging. I really applaud the efforts that the school have made in their transition and it is wonderful to see them recognised by the people who matter most in a child's life. 

"My thoughts about the changes in Foundation Stage, from someone who had reservations, and is now really happy!  

I hope this is helpful to any school or to parents who are thinking about making the same change as that in Carr Manor Primary Schools' Foundation Stage and may have concerns.  I am a parent with 2 children at the school.  My eldest child started in reception 3 years ago. We were very happy with the standard of care and education in reception, the environment was excellent and seemed to deliver everything we had expected for our child starting school. 

Two years later our daughter started in reception.  This was the first year the school introduced the new foundation system.  I had a number of reservations.  I had been very pleased with the reception class that our eldest child had been part of, what could be described as a more traditional educational model.  Class room, carpet, reading books, register, spellings, structured learning, set play times.I didn't see the need to change what appeared to be a good reception class.

 I was concerned about mixing nursery school children with reception aged children and particularly the effect this might have on teaching the children in reception.  I was worried that my child would lose out, and may be disadvantaged because of being in the same group as younger children. I was also concerned about what might appear to be an extension of nursery, rather than the start of school.  How would she know this was school if it felt like a continuation of nursery?  How would she be prepared for key stage one? I was worried about the size of the foundation stage, it seemed like a huge number of children to arrive on site, and be collected at any one time, 120 children is a lot in one, albeit large, space. I was also a little concerned about the "learning through play" ethos.  My head thought it would probably be a good thing, having read research to that effect.  My heart felt that being given something different was unsettling. Even though I felt uncomfortable about the changes, I did trust the the staff at Carr Manor and believed that they would only make the changes if it was in the children's best interest, however, I did need to be convinced. 

One year on I am convinced.  Any worries or concerns that I had have gone away.  I am so happy with this year, more than I could have possibly imagined. 

Taking my concerns in turn, mixing nursery age children and reception children together and the effect this may have on development.  Rather than this being detrimental to our child, it has been the opposite.  She has thrived and has relished the role as one of the "older" children, happily taking on responsibility that would not have been available to her in the other system.  She has shown real maturity, taking care of the younger children and stepping up in the role.  This is particularly noticeable as our daughter is the youngest in our family and is rarely "the older one" at home.  I see this as a huge advantage, one that she would not have experienced this year had it not have been for the school.  

Being in a mixed age group has not had any detrimental effect on her learning.  She has thrived in a less pressured environment.  The way this new system supports children to learn at their own pace and still be stretched is refreshing.  By not putting children under any pressure helps develop their confidence, and helps then to feel able to take risks, and succeed.  For example, she has absolutely grasped the concept of phonics, is eager to read books and does this without thinking by noticing words around her, part of her everyday life.

Our daughter is very clear that she is in reception and other children are in nursery.  She is somehow able to maintain this reception identity and therefore it doesn't feel like a continuation of nursery.   Looking on, I find it difficult to make the distinction.  I have no concerns about that, but I find it interesting that the children do make a clear distinction between the reception and nursery, which I think will be important as they move into year 1.

Even though there are a lot of children arriving altogether, there have been different entrances.  Each group, very clearly has a particular area, pegs, a stage and of course staff giving each group a particular identity.  It doesn't feel like a huge group, even though it is.  There is a lot of interaction between the groups giving a real sense of togetherness.  I know lots of names of children in other groups, all identified by the colour of group they belong to, amazing.

There has been so much creativity on display through the learning.  The children have been given the opportunity to choose topics that interest them.  The highlight for our group was the dancing project.  Born out of the groups interest in the Japanese Tsunami and their wish to help the relief effort.  The group decided to put on a dancing show.  It was unbelievable, inspirational and totally amazing.  Choreographed by the children, we were amazed by their efforts and their enthusiasm.  What an opportunity and what an experience for them all, building a huge amount of confidence and enabling the children to learn in a different way, developing the skills they will need to draw on as they move through the school and develop educationally.

I understand that every child is different and develop at different rates.  I am convinced that our eldest boy would have thrived in this environment.  With hindsight he struggled with the more structured approach.  Our daughter would have probably coped well in that environment, but I know she absolutely has thrived in this new system and I would have no hesitation in recommending the approach, it is brilliant.  Superbly executed by the staff at Carr Manor, who are amazing."