Pre-school teaches kids how to saw wood and cook on an open fire!

This school has thrown the health and safety book out the window…

The Nursery school is in a remote forest and has no running water or electricity, employing a back-to-nature approach to childcare.  The Elves and Fairies Woodland Nursery prides themselves on learning through nature!

Children aged as young as two get to grips with the great outdoors, clambering over trees, rolling around in the mud, sawing wood, chopping vegetables and cooking lunch on an open fire.  The group spend all day outside in the elements, with the pre-school adopting the motto ‘there is no such thing as bad weather – only the wrong clothing’.

Owner Kirsteen Freer started the nursery in 2007 but it has only been fully outdoors for last six years.  She has five other members of staff look after up to a maximum of 12 children at a time.

An average day in the woods will see children sing camp songs around a campfire, build shelters, take part in nature crafts, splash in puddles and help chop vegetables for their lunch.  Maths often involves using collected sticks for counting and doing simple fractions while the children do leaf and bark rubbing for art. They also learn through copying rhyming patterns and identifying letters on signs.

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