Learning in the garden classroom

Children in their garden classroom

The new garden classroom at St John's Catholic Primary School in Bridgnorth is full of entertaining ways to educate.

The activities the children enjoy range from counting insects on the ladybird trail to making 'cakes' in the new sand pit area.

Head teacher, Helen Murray said play was an important part of learning.

Everything the children do is part of a carefully planned structured learning programme.

Ms Murray said the children were enjoying their lessons: "Quite often the children go home and tell their mums and dads they've been playing all day, but it's actually very highly structured."

She said all the outdoor activities covered the six areas of learning in the national curriculum for early years children.

"They are learning to do nice handwriting and they are learning to play together, share together. They are problem solving, they are doing numeracy activities and things like that." she said.