Schools return for summer workshops

Schools that did our workshops in March came back for more during the Summer Term.

As previously, some were held in the lovely Blossom Garden at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park but we also did some in Canning Town Recreation Park, Hampstead Heath and in the grounds of a school in West London. But wherever you are, nature always comes up trumps – every flowerbed, field border and meadow is full of beautiful shapes and forms, scents and textures not to mention ubiquitous bird song that wins over traffic noise every time.

We have extended the age range we work with so some of the workshops mentioned above were for KS2 and some for the upper end of KS3, that is, Year 8 and 9.

Other developments include an assembly to precede the workshops which introduces the idea of harmony in nature and in ourselves. This went down extremely well and made a significant difference to the speed that pupils engaged with the workshop later in the day.

For Year 9 we made the workshop part of a day’s project entitled, ‘How can we live in harmony with nature?’ Pupils wrote poems, presented dialogues and polemical pieces based on what they had learnt about nature from experience in the workshop and the harmony principles we discussed with them. To the winning group’s delight, the prizes were a tomato or squash plant.

We are booking now for the Autumn Term.