About Us

We are an outdoor nursery and out of school club, which follows Forest School practices. Our ethos is to foster well-being by encouraging children to spend time exploring nature and learning out in the fresh air.

We work on 6 main principles:

Principle 1: Meeting children’s Needs (all year round)

We ensure that our setting provides the right conditions for the children to be comfortable and thrive all year round, through all the different seasons and often unpredictable weather conditions.

Principle 2: Community and Social Skills

At The Happy Homestead community is a big part of our ethos. We aim to be like one big family. Practitioners will always be on hand to support children, offer cuddles and kindness. We aim to encourage each child to flourish socially by making sure every child is happy and involved in something of their choosing. We also offer opportunities for small group times to give children more focused attention and to make sure everyone is able to express themselves.

We have community reflection sessions each day where the children can discuss what they have learned and achieved. This encourages shared learning and encourages children to reflect on their experiences. We congratulate each other on their achievements to encourage the encourage children to be as happy when other children succeed as when they do. This is the foundation for a community that shares and cares for each other.

Principle 3: Freedom and Individuality of Learning

Our setting views every child as an individual with their own interests and abilities. By allowing the children to freely explore the outdoor environment we promote learning through discovery and spontaneity.

The majority of the settings resources and activities are part of the setting’s continuous provision, which allows children to revisit an activity whenever they wish. In doing this they are able to build up on their past learning experiences to achieve an even better outcome or fine tune their skills. For example, when building a den, they may have learned what went well and what didn’t and can use this knowledge to create an even bigger, better structure next time.

Principle 4: Inherent interest in Nature

We spend our time outdoors in nature to with the aim to build an understanding of nature, respect for it and the skills to look after it. This also involves introducing the idea of ecosystems in a very simple way such as the value of worms for breaking down our compost to make soil for plants, which then produce food that we can pick and eat.

We hope to give children a sense of freedom by not keeping children within four walls and by only limiting their experiences if deemed unsafe for the child or other around them. For instance, in a usual classroom the children would be discouraged from running or throwing balls – but in on outdoor classroom they have enough space to run around as much as they like and kick or throw balls. The children can get wet and muddy by splashing in puddles or painting with juice from berries found on trees and plants. Activities that remove inhibition and build memories that will last a lifetime.

Principle 5: Managing Risk

An advantage of being outdoors is that our children get to experience appropriate risk taking. We believe that risk is very beneficial as it allows children to understand their capabilities and make careful choices to balance their own challenges versus risk. For instance, when building a den they would be able to recognise to create a sound structure otherwise it would crash down on their heads! With risk children also learn that sometimes they do not succeed at something but that if they keep trying they can improve and adapt. We view failure as an opportunity for learning. We talk about how our bodies work, for example, how physical activity makes our hearts beat faster and our breaths shorter. We talk about how fear can be felt physically, and how it acts a mechanism to protect us and keep us alert to hazards.

Principle 6: Happiness

We aim to teach the children to live a happy life, now and in the future. We talk about our emotions and what they feel like and what triggers them. We talk about what happiness means and what makes us happy. Practitioners give regular praise to our children, even for small accomplishments to show that the children’s actions are being rewarded and encouraged. This builds a child’s confidence. It also gives our children the language to use to build positivity with their peers and family members. This links to back to our community principle and the importance of looking out for one another.