News & Events
Summer 2010
The Summer Term is proving a very busy one with some 33 days working in schools. The activities with children are a mix of Forest School and Labyrinth activities with emotional and physical well-being as our focus.
Willow Labyrinth for North Cadbury. A particularly enjoyable 3 days was spent planning and making a willow labyrinth at North Cadbury. Making a willow labyrinth was a new venture for us. The school was keen to have a 'living willow' labyrinth, so care had o be taken in prepaing the ground.
Children laid out the initial design on the ground with twine and pegs, which was then painted onto the grass. Adults then cut away the turf, with members of the schools staff involved, including the Head.
Then came the hard bit! The ground proved to be a mix of clay and stones underneath, which would not take the willow. This meant that the afternoon of the first day was spent digging out the stones with trowels, followed by mixing in soil improver with the disturbed clay. At various times we had up to 30 children with buckets and trowels engaged in this task, with a hosepipe used to soften the soil.
The next stage involved pegging a weed barrier over the prepared soil. After another watering every child in the school was able to plant a single willow stick into the labyrinth. Owing to the hardness of the soil is was necessary for an adult to
prepare the hole using a steel stake and lump hammer. Children then tied the will hoops into shape prior to final trimming.
The willow labyrinth will require regular watering as May is quite late for this kind of work. At the time of writing it is sprouting well, and time will tell if the roots are also establishing themselves.
North Cadbury Forest School. We have also completed three days of Forest School at North Cadbury with teamwork and risk-taking as a theme. Children each experienced an hour long session in which they worked to complete two tasks. The first was our ever-popular 'Stone Age Bling' activity in which children make jewellery out of elder and various hardwoods. Differentiation is achieved through increasing the range of tools used and the complexity of the piece of jewellery. Reception children and Year 1 and 2 work with junior saws. Years 3 to 6 also work with bow saws and hand drills.
The second activity was the 'Tower of Babel' activity. This is an open-ended group task, with minimal guidance from adults. Children use willow rods, string, tape and pegs to construct the highest 'tower' they can. This was a new activity, which proved very popular and a lot of fun. We were very pleased that the youngest children were able to access the task and ut
ilised a variety of structural concepts we hadn't even thought of.
Labyrinths at Winsham Primary School, June 2010. Wisham is a small village between Chard and Crewkerne. The school caters for a small population, which means that many class activities cater for the full age range. This creates a great family atmosphere, which was enhanced
when parents and grandparents joined us on the second day of activities to watch the labyrinth related play 'Theseus and the Monotaur', in which every child in the school participated!
The three day programme began with making a full size rope labyrinth on the school field. It was a hot day but we were fortunate in having plenty of tree cover in the immediate area. In the afternoon we rehearsed the play, in readiness for the community performance on the Tuesday. On the second day, three circuit cobble labyrinths were made in readiness for making them on Charmouth b
each the following day.
On day three of the programme the whole school went down to Charmouth beach where the children made cobble and sand labyrinths. The head, Sarah Barlow, decided to invest in a full set of bright yellow sun hats to combat the sun, as well as ensuring we could identify Winsham children at a distance. The day on the beach ended with a cricket match and a Circle Time. One child made our life worth living by saying it was 'the best school day she'd ever had'. So, if you live within twenty miles of a beach, ge
t your kids down there!
These were three particularly happy days when the value of the labyrinth project as an exercise in community cohesion showed its benefits. We were also particularly fortunate with the weather, which remained hot for all three days. One grandparent took away a labyrinth plan with the intention of making a 'penny labyrinth' at the village fete as a means of raising funds for local charitable causes. Yet another use for labyrinths!
Chris Trwoga
June 2010