Time Flies

I spent 25 years working with a three term education system so I still get confused by my shift into 6 terms with no 'half terms'. This doesn't make much difference at all to day-to-day outdoor learning, just to my labelling of chunks of the year! The biggest impact it has this week is the realisation that we're speeding towards the end of Term 3, The February (half term) week off of school starts on Valentines Evening and marks the half way point through this academic year. 
Snowdrops and daffodils are beginning to emerge, 2020 is a month old!
We're half way there! (yes I can hear Bon Jovi in my head when I type that!)

So much has happened yet there is so much yet to come too!
It's a mix between incredulity that five and a half months has sped by and amazement that in another five and a half months we will be enjoying the Summer Holidays.

Mama Beech is stoical about it all, as the shells of long discarded Beech nuts crunch underfoot I can see new growth at the tip of every twig she has raised to the sky. 

This week a few children have decided that Mama Beech id their favourite tree. There are three groups of children working towards their Junior Forester Certificate who are learning to identify some of the trees on our site. It seems Year 2, Year 3 and Year 5 are all learning to appreciate her!














Also this week our Monday Gardening Club was up and running! Thank goodness for wonderful volunteers with a bit of time, a lot of skill, patience and enthusiasm! Year 2 are taking turns planting and watering and creating seedlings and exploring roots and shoots and soil... they are even eager to help tidy up afterwards!

The Outdoor Classroom needs minimal finishing off. The lucky children who have been able to get a close up preview are all excited about using it and really enjoyed watching it evolve and appear day by day in front of their eyes!















We have been lucky enough to keep the off cuts from the build of the roundhouse, and they have been great additions to the edge of our pond. Hopefully they will help to hold back some of the gravel when we get it and keep it on the bank and not sinking into the depths!

 For me I ended the week with the cutest encounter with a tiny Harvest Mouse which helped distract from the worry of what havoc Storm Ciara might wreak upon our hilltop site...





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