Badgers Wood
At The View School, we believe in developing all aspects of a young person's character.
In line with this ethos, we have an area of woodland known as Badgers Wood, which has been developed to provide our students with the opportunity to grow outside of a traditional ‘academic’ classroom environment.
Woodland education has many benefits for our young people.
Social Development
Group activities encourage teamwork, collaboration, and communication skills. They give the students opportunities to practice language skills within real contexts. We believe that being outside can reduce the social pressures often associated with being within a classroom setting. This has a positive impact on sense of belonging.
Emotional Welbeing
Being in nature has a calming effect, leading to reduced stress and anxiety. This can help students to begin to regulate their emotions. The woodland allows students to engage in practical, achievable, yet challenging outdoor tasks, helping them to build confidence and boost their self-esteem. The students learn to manage challenge in a less ‘threatening’ way than in the classroom, leading to an increase in their resilience.
Physical Development
The Woodland provides opportunities for the students to improve both fine and gross motor skills. Examples of these include opportunities for climbing, digging, tying knots and tool use, all of which improve co-ordination and dexterity. The sensory input from the woodland’s textures, sounds and smells can help our young people with sensory processing difficulties. In addition to this, being in the woods means the students are being physically active – this is an important part of leading a healthy lifestyle.
Independence and Lifeskills
The work that the students carry out during woodland sessions requires our young people to develop risk management skills and strategies. Safely engaging with tools and fire helps to increase their sense of responsibility and self-awareness. Working on their problem-solving skills transfers into many real-life challenges and develops practical thinking, encourages resilience and many other essential life-skills.
Cognitive and Learning Benefits
Hands-on, outdoor learning helps to make many of the abstract ideas within Science, Maths and problem solving real and more ‘concrete’. Fresh air and movement can help with improving concentration levels. The Woodland Curriculum is flexible and can be easily adapted to support individuals, their learning goals and their EHCP outcomes.
Badgers Wood gives our students an excellent opportunity to thrive outside of traditional academic pressures. It supports their emotional wellbeing, social interaction, physical health and cognitive development, while also equipping them with essential life-skills in a way which feels engaging, safe and empowering.