Positive Environmental Change Courses 2011-12

Course

Trainer

Date

Cost

Learning Stories, Learning Styles

This dynamic day will look at ways educators can help their learners' story-make through using natural resources and the outdoor environment.  Techniques of story-making and telling, utilising and enhancing a diverse range of learning styles will be explored.  We will practise how to tell stories to and with young people and use them as a stimulus for play and creation of their own stories in the outdoors.

Katrice Horsley

18^th October  

£135

Emotional Literacy in the Outdoors

Discover how the natural world and activity in it can support creative and safe emotional expression.  Learn about the four core emotions and our relationship to them.  Realise the importance of relaxation, fun and play through direct experience and how to support powerful communication skills.  Explore techniques to empower your personal and professional life.  This course provides a real practical way of working with emotional intelligence and supporting the SEAL and SEAD programmes and the new agenda for emotional well being in schools.

Jon Cree

19^th October

£135

Making Play Structures at Forest School

Back by popular demand!  Rope swings, rope bridges, rope walks (in fact any rope things for creative play) and structures such as a simple tree house will be built on this day.  If you want to know how to build safe but challenging structures with children that enhance creativity and physical play at your Forest School site while minimising the impact on the site, then this is the day for you!

Jon Cree & Julie Grainger

21^st November

£135

Wood – Land – Elements

A tree, just like ourselves is an embodiment of fire, water, earth and air! Come and work with all 4 of these elements.  This course is designed for any educator with a passion for working with natural materials.  The course will include processes and experimentation to help move learners from routine digging and dragging of sticks!  Mick will guide you through a series of practical, stimulating possibilities from making fire to smoke signals, mud huts to giant cob (clay) snails, how to play with rain, creating with natural pigments, etc

Mick Petts

22^nd November

£135

Fire and Fun  -  New!

This day will look at the plethora of creative possibilities fire present for Forest School Leaders.  We will be covering various fire lighting techniques – from the spark through to the hand drill, looking at the fire possibilities of different tree types: 

• creative cooking – from baking real bread through to spicing up a wild food
•  stories around and about fire
• creative ways of working with natural materials inspired by the fire

Chris Salisbury & Jon Cree

29^th November

£135

Leading Earthwalks Day

"Earthwalks are light refreshing touches of nature – sharpening the senses while highlighting the richness of the natural world using a series of special activities"

This earth education training day will look at earthwalks in depth -  all day in the crisp winter woodland way!  There will be an introduction to earth education, then the remainder of the day will be spent examining techniques required for leading earthwalks.

Jon Cree

6^th December

£135

Working with Living Willow

This hands on course looks at the planting and weaving techniques, where and how to source willow and maintaining sculptures and structures.  Techniques will include different types of play environment, constructing unusual sculptures, how to entice wildlife and combine a number of materials.  Mick will also share helpful tips and techniques on working with groups on living willow sculptures.

Mick Petts

2^nd & 3^rd February

£230

Green Woodworking with Young People

Coppicing, cutting, chopping, bodging, pole lathing and creating something from the raw material can be the most fulfilling experience for anyone  -  in particular, a young person in need of a self-esteem boost!  This day will help you with your own techniques and on ways of working with young people in these vital traditional and creative skills

Ade Llewellyn & Matt Hawes

6^th February

£135

Whittling for Forest School Practitioners

One of the ways to calm yourself in the woods and tune in to the properties of wood and trees is to whittle!  This day will give practitioners a chance to practice some safe and effective whittling techniques – whether making a butter knife, spoon or cooking utensil.  You will gain some ideas on how to teach whittling to even the youngest of learners, Yes, Foundation Stage! and which woods are best for which whittle!  You will also have a chance to practise tool maintenance with knives, gouges and more, including sharpening and storage.

Jon Cree & Julie Grainger

7^th February

£135

Building Cob Ovens

Want to take your cooking and creativity even further on your sites – be it a forest school site, school grounds or education site in the outdoors?  Then this may well be the course for you.  Get your hands and feet in the earth, have fun and be creative.  As a group, we will be building a simple, low cost, effective wood fired oven using clay dug from the ground and sharing the process this takes on when working with children and schools on such a project.  Nancy is a community artist who has worked with schools building cob ovens.

Nancy Evans

3^rd & 4^th March

£230

Learning Outside the Classroom & Leading Environmental Activities

This course will be a day of environmental activities aimed mainly at the Primary and Early Years sector that can be delivered in school grounds or on any outdoor sites.  They day will include story and creative activity and a number of activities dealing with natural processed, plant and animal diversity.  We will look at how to deepen the learning process through effective leadership and how to support the school curriculum.

Jon Cree

6^th March

£135

Working with Challenging Behaviour

This course ia s 3 day WMOCN accredited course.  We delve into:

• what challenges us as leaders in the outdoors
• theory on challenging behaviour
• up to date neural research
• triggers and causes for challenging behaviour
• ways of dealing with 'real life' scenarios
• de-escalation and formulating / reviewing your own policies, including looking at the validity of sanctions and rewards

Jon Cree, Simon Shakespeare & Sarah Robertshaw

19^th to 21^st March

£295