Geology at The Coombes School

Rocks and landscape projects tend to be hugely popular with children. There is a natural attraction between stones and kids. When visiting The Coombes School, perhaps the most impressive development of all, is the geology trail. This is no ordinary collection of rocks, but epitomises the whole ethos and approach of the school and how it values the world in which we live.

Unlike many geology trails where the rocks are lumped together, the stones around The Coombes School are scattered throughout the grounds. Just finding them all is a feat in itself!

The words below are not mine, they are written by the school staff for their Geology Calendar 2006. Each year, their school calendar has a different theme (yet another good idea) and I just felt the description gave their trail justice in a way I could not....

"What are rocks? They are shelter, building material, a link to the most ancient history of the earth. They are beautiful; immutable. They are landmarks. Rocks define and change spaces.

The Coombes School have been creating a geology trail to offer the children and adults at the school another dimension to learning and teaching. Our rocks represent the major geological regions of the British Isles.  We offer them to children as social places, places for games, ideas and imaginative play. In our outdoor classroom they offer endless opportunities for informal and formal learning out of doors.

The seasons bring changes of temperature, colour and growth but the rocks carry on being themselves.  Their weathering is often too slow for us to see and teaches us to respect the power of nature.

The geology trail expands our belief in museum education, where collections of like things stimulate interest. We can use rocks to find out about whole world geology and connections between great land masses.

Dressed slate from Central Wales

These 6 slate slabs were ‘dressed’ for billiard tables. When the tables were broken up, the slate was positioned as a screen between the upper and lower pathway. The stones have been inscribed with a guide to living, ‘we care for each other'. There is a peace dove, a celtic knot and an inscribed alphabet for touching.

Millstones

Four millstones from a working mill in Wiltshire represent a part of an age old system to extract flour and render grain fit for consumption. Basic to our appreciation  of stones is to see them as part of everyday equipment in building, tool making, road construction and essential commodities.

The Sandstone Sarsen Boulders

We have two groups of these intriguing stones that were carried enormous distances by the moving ice during the glacial period and then left behind when the ice melted.  Their texture has been scoured over time to smooth curves and pits with friendly holes to explore.

Cornish Granite Blocks

These were part of the sea wall at the Cardiff docks. When the wall was restructured the blocks were sold off but these became an important part of our site. They are used for play, seating and as an exhibition space.  They are very tactile and in the sunlight they sparkle. Their original purpose is echoed in their arrangement.

Yorkshire Limestone – Coombeshenge

Human beings have always been fascinated by large stones, making them into places of ritual and worship. Inspired by the stone circles of Stonehenge and Avebury, we acknowledge our pagan past and the skills of early engineers, mathematician and astronomers.

Scottish Granite

The largest single structure is the set of rocks from Scotland. This pink granite comes from the quarry which provided the fascia for the new Scottish Parliament building. Set up to accentuate their mass and grandeur they function as a place of shade and shelter and a hiding place, dominating your field of vision as you look towards them from the field drive. It feels like part of the mountainside where it originated and it shows how natural materials fit into any environment.  These are also popular with our sheep who like to shelter beneath them.

Cotswold Stone

These are 10 stones arranged along the path that links the infant and junior schools. This parallels the way that Coombes children grow in age and development and move onto the next phase of their school education when the right times comes. The stones are exactly one child’s stride apart. Bark chippings have been added to make them nestle into the environment and create a bank.

Photo supplied by Di Blackmore, Forth Environment Link

Red Sandstone

This distinctive sandstone came from Penrith in the Lake District. It gets sun from the south and west and frequently has eye catching shadows on it and cast by it. The half face was carved by artist Euan MacEwan and the lines on the face represent children’s hands and the lines on them! The lines of destiny and use, and the identity of each individual is in some way etched into the face so that it mirrors all of us. The lines around the eyes are a highlight and were inspired by the whorls of our fingertips. This figure represents the interaction and exchange between all of us: our cooperation with each other and with the Earth.

Conglomerate rock

These were the first boulders in the Geology Trail. They are sited in the Nursery garden so that our youngest children can enjoy these mini mountains, exploring their proerties and characteristics. By wetting them, we can see the different components – area that sparkle and catch the light, the range of colours and textures. Conglomorate rock is sedimentary, formed by layers and mixtures of sand and pebbles, laid down by sea and river action.

Farington Sponge Rock

The earliest plants colonised the rocks. They were lichens and mosses and these plants over many thousands of generations were the soil producers. The rocks are the fossilized remains of billions of sponges which multiplied in the salt water lagoon around Faringdon. Children can get an insight into the changes which have shaped our world from their direct contact with these rocks. These rocks can only be found in two places in Europe  - in Oxfordshire and Greece." 

Have a look at The Coombes video which shows children hunting for fossils in the sponge rock here:

The geology trail was created over many years and relied upon the determination, finance and efforts of many individuals and groups, not least the former head teacher, Sue Humphries. Here's the complete list:

Cornish Granite Steps – November 1996

Mendip conglomerate rock – November 1996

Faringdon sponge rock  - March 1998

Purbeck limestone (King Arthur’s Seat) – May 1998

Yorkshire Limestone (Coombeshenge) – November and December 1998

Derbyshire Gritstone (The Dolmen) – March 1999

Penrith Sandstone – November 2000

Hornton Bluestone – May 2001

Australian Convict Rock – June 2001

Sarson Boulders – July 2001

Millstones – September 2001

Slate Standing Stones – September 2002

Slate Screens – December 2002

Scottish Pink Granite – March 2002 

Sarsen Boulders – June 2004 

Cotswold Boulders – October 2005

Red rock from the Great Rift Valley (Cradle of Civilisation) – June 2005

I hope this post has given you some ideas about geology and how to introduce it to children in a friendly, exciting way. The Scottish Earth Science Education Forum has recently created an Primary Earth Science Outdoors Pack. It is free and will help you get going with rock project outdoors with plenty of ideas, activities and lesson plans.

A Silent Walk at The Coombes School

Philosophical enquiry skills can be developed with children at any age and stage. It involves exploring beliefs, values, practices and traditions through critical thinking, reflection and analysis.

When I was visiting The Coombes School, Sue Humphries led a silent walk with two groups of children - a Year 1/2 class and a Year 6 class, thus demonstrating the open-ended nature of this activity which is a good springboard into reflection and thinking.

I stumbled upon this activity by accident. I happened to wander past this child sitting on his own away from anyone else. When I asked what he was doing, he jumped up and pointed the way down the path to find the rest of the class.

Sue had asked the children to line up silently behind her. At regular intervals she tapped the children and indicated where they were to sit quietly.

As the photo shows the children are spaced out quite far away from each other. Too far away to have discussions without having too shout very loud! The child below chatted to me about what she was expected to do.

She knew she had to be quiet and stay on her mat thinking until Sue came round again and collected the children. No specific topic or question had been issued to the children. It was very open-ended. At the gathering place below, the children came together and discussed the thoughts and feelings experienced during the activity.

A window with a view for babies

The other week I was visiting a super nursery in Aberdeen as part of a Grounds for Learning site visit. The staff are currently developing their outdoor space for the babies which is looking like this:

The piles of sand will become little hills. The staff plan to put a small and slightly elevated pipe through one of the hills for the children to roll objects down. Behind the hills will be three tyres inserted upright. As one parent pointed out to his child, the tyres come from different vehicles so are all slightly different. There was a motorcycle tyre and two different car tyres. Also out-of-sight, the staff plan to provide a variety of different surfaces for the children to crawl and walk across. A sand pit will also be created in due course.

The baby room is round the other side of the building. It's a small nursery so this isn't a problem as the staff understand the need for the children to have lots of time outside daily, all year round and in all weathers. However, the staff want to brighten up the view from their baby room. This is the view just outside the window:

If you look you can see one or two objects hanging from the trees...

So now...I'm asking for your ideas and suggestions. How would you brighten up this space? The babies can't access the area, they can only see it from their window. 

Here's some of my thoughts:

• Paint the wall a cream colour to complement the trees and shrubs. Rather than growing climbing plants up it, have it clean and calm so that the trees and shrubs are in greater focus.
• Add a little more topsoil to the ground. Mulch the area and cover with bark chips to reduce the need for weeding, care and maintenance. Plant a variety of perennial flowers and bulbs so that there is always something in bloom all year round.
• Use the trees and shrubs as a 3D display area. Whatever the children's focus and interests are indoors, use the space outside to attract attention. For example, if a baby likes looking at a mirror indoors, then hang one or two on the trees outside. A child who likes teddies may find that one day there are some teddies having a picnic outside.
• Put seasonal objects, e.g. decorate the trees with Christmas decorations in December. Have red colours as a focus during the Chinese New Year (red is considered a lucky colour in China, I believe)
• Put up bird feeders and enjoy watching birds visit. Have pictures of the common garden birds that visit inside near the window for reference.

Please do tell me your suggestions - however small or grand - and I'll pass them onto the nursery staff. Thank you!

Leave No Trace Fires

For thousands of years our ancestors relied on fire for cooking and as a source of heat and comfort. However in recent decades we have become culturally adverse to the concept of open fires whether that is in our homes or outside. The Scottish Outdoor Access Code gives this advice:

Wherever possible, use a stove rather than light an open fire. If you do wish to light an open fire, keep it small, under control and supervised – fires that get out of control can cause major damage, for which you might be liable. Never light an open fire during prolonged dry periods or in areas such as forests, woods, farmland, or on peaty ground or near to buildings or in cultural heritage sites where damage can be easily caused. Heed all advice at times of high risk. Remove all traces of an open fire before you leave.

Thus here in Scotland the only places left are mown grass and beaches. Otherwise it is a sanitised, boxed up form of fire such as stoves and barbecues that people are expected to use. Fair enough when you remember the damage caused by fires that get out of control.

Not to be put off, several weeks ago, on a family canoeing trip, I decided that it might be nice for my son to experience an open fire in a semi-wild place and to learn about the concept of leaving no trace in an experiential way. We found a lovely beach on a loch and set to work, taking care to site the fire away from trees and vegetation.  There was a gentle wind  but this was carrying the smoke across the loch.

First we set about collecting dry sticks from the ground. We had to sort these by size into those as thin as spaghetti, those as thin as pencils and those as thin as our thumbs. Next we cleared a small place in the sand and brought out the tinder. 

In the pot on the left is some very dry birch bark. On the right is a firestick I made several months ago from Scot's Pine. I took both along with us as dry tinder is essential to starting a fire.

MJ was given the honour of lighting the fire. Although I have a Swedish flint stick, I took pity on him and let him use a match. We don't have photos as we were too busy concentrating on the fire! But the dry tinder was well worth bringing.

Even a small fire needs a good heart. We followed the No Trace principle of keeping the fire small and using sticks that are smaller in diameter than our wrists.

MJ enjoyed toasting and eating the marshmallows. He did have to test this out by completely burning several of them. 

Once we'd finished our snack and drink, we made sure that our fire burnt out completely. The lumps of half burnt wood were moved in to the heart to ensure all the wood turned to ash.

This takes quite a bit of time and patience. Next we had to ensure the fire was completely cool, by adding water until the smoke had gone.  We scattered the ash far and wide so that it could not be seen.

We made sure that no ash was left on the beach. We did not want to see a trace of the fire here or anywhere else.

Just before we left by canoe, we "swept" the beach to make it look less disturbed with a little bit of heather. 

Last year I attended several bushcraft courses to ensure I was making and managing open fires in a sensible and environmentally sensitive way. This blog is for information only and should not be used as a guide to lighting fires.

Welcome Back to School - An Outdoor Circle Time

All over Scotland, children are gearing up for their first few days back at school. So are the teachers. I always used to be a bag of nerves on my first day back, even when working in small schools and having the same children.

Today I was reading a lovely book, Rediscovery, recommended to me by Marghanita Hughes, a children's author. It's a book of outdoor activities based on native traditions. This sparked off a few ideas about what to do outside with a new class at the start of the year.

Quick Circle
Develop the habit of gathering in a circle quickly. When the teacher calls "Quick Circle", the class has to make a circle near where the teacher is standing. This can be made into a game by doing this lots of times, timing the class and seeing if they can do this within 10 seconds, then 5 seconds, etc. Discuss strategies to get the time down.

A circle on the ground is often a good gathering place

Here, There, Where?
If you have a young class that is excitable, this makes a good way of bringing them back to you. On a playing field, call out "Go here!" and point in a direction. After several seconds, call out "No, go over there!" and point in a different direction. Then call out "No, wriggle over here!" and get the children to wriggle in a different direction again. Keep the instructions snappy. After a minute or so, call out "Over here!" and point to the ground just in front of you. With any luck, the children will be at your feet ready for the next activity.

Sticky Elbows
This activity gets children into a nicely shaped circle. The teacher calls out "Sticky elbows". Everyone puts their hands on their hips and tries to get their elbows to touch each others. This tends to be less of an issue than asking children to hold hands. Of course it's also possible to call out "Sticky knees" or "Sticky shoulders" or "Sticky feet". Often children enjoy taking it in turn to call out a connection.

Circle Greetings (From Rediscovery, p51)
Standing in a circle the teacher welcomes everyone into the class and introduces him or herself by shaking hands with the person on the left. The first person he or she shakes hands with immediately follows the leader doing the same. Everyone continues shaking hands around the circle until each person has met every other. Eventually everyone returns to the spot where he or she began.

Cinnamon Roll (From Rediscovery, p51)
This follows on nicely from Circle Greetings. By now, the children are generally a little more receptive to holding hands. The teacher now says "Today is only our first day, so we only feel this close" and he or she gets everyone to hold hands and raise them high in the air. "But, by the end of the year, I'll bet we feel this close." The teacher releases his or her right hand and immediately starts turning anti-clockwise on the spot. A great big human cinnamon roll will begin to follow, along with a lot of laughter and chaos. If everyone manages to become part of the roll, the teacher can call out "Press the roll smaller!" The big squeeze may happen. Be warned!

Hopes and Fears
This activity sets the scene for the year ahead. Hand out a card to each child with two opposite words on them, e.g. big/small, soft/hard, rough/smooth, etc. Not every card needs to be different if you are feeling short of time. Ask everyone to find two natural objects that represent the opposites written on their card. On one sheet of paper, write the word "Hopes" and on the other sheet, write "Fears". Ask the children to think about one hope they have for the year ahead. As they say this hope aloud in turn, the child can stick one of their objects on the sheet. Then go round the circle and the action is repeated for "Fears". If a child can't think of something, all they need to do is put the object on the paper.  Back inside, the children can take turns to write their hope and fear beside their objects. This can be a useful keepsake for reflecting upon at the end of the year. It can be interesting to see whether the hopes and fears were manifested or not.

This activity is good for getting children to look closely at natural objects found in the school grounds

I'm sure you will all have your own ideas for starting back at school. Feel free to share any suggestions for more outdoor activities. Good luck and all the best!

Music and Rhythm Outdoors at The Coombes School

When I pick up two stones on a beach and begin to tap them together, a slight shiver goes down my spine. Not for negative reasons, but with each clink I am reminded about who I am and where I'm from. I know that thousands of years ago, adults and children will have been music making this way.

Ever since humans have existed on this planet we have been entranced with the rhythms of nature and natural sounds. Thus when music happens outdoors in whatever form, it seems bigger, brighter and just a bit different from inside. The acoustics are different but so is the feel of playing music outside.

Thus, it was lovely to see lots of classes at The Coombes School have music lessons outside. The Y6 class above are engaged in a drumming session. This can easily be undertaken indoors, but on a warm summer's day, being outside does make the experience different. The sound travels far and the children could be heard a long way off!

As well as using formal instruments, the music teacher had also developed her own supply of homemade instruments:

The rhythm sticks are dowling bought from a DIY store. There are chopsticks in the other container. The short sticks in the basket and the big long sticks were all harvested from trees in the school grounds. The children helped the teacher to do this. 

The big sticks were used for many different activities. I saw a series of singing games where the children tapped out the beat and passed the sticks around the circle. This involved a high degree of cooperation between the children to work effectively.

Alongside specific lessons, music featured naturally as part of wider activities. For example, I stumbled across this drummer in the woods, accompanying a play:

And as I mentioned in a previous post, a parent played the cello as children walked through a labyrinth:

Finally, although this video has nothing to do with The Coombes School, it does demonstrate the potential of the natural world to provide us with some rhythmic sounds. Introducing the Bodacious Beidler Kneeknockers...

An Outdoor Tea Towel

Many years ago I taught in a tiny school which had just 9 pupils. One of the challenges of working in a small school is that standard ideas and activities nearly always require adapting. For example, when we did a pantomime, I had to write one called "Snow White and Several Dwarves" as we didn't have enough to make the traditional seven.

Likewise, fund raisers were always interesting. At the time, only 50 people lived in the village, many of whom were retired or on state benefits of one sort or another. So undertaking activities which attracted funds from outwith the village were particularly welcomed.

One year we decided to make our own tea towel. This is a common fund raiser in UK schools. Normally in nurseries, each child does a hand print. In primary school each child draws his or her face. The tea towel looks a bit like this:

As you can imagine, with just a handful of children, the tea towel would look a little blank. Also most tea towels are normally sold just to relatives, parents and carers. This would not make a tea towel very cost effective if we relied on this traditional approach.

Instead we borrowed and adapted an idea from other nearby schools. We created a village tea towel featuring all the local businesses. Each child had to put themselves in the image too. Here was the result:

There were a number of benefits to doing this. Firstly, all the children had to go into the village and find out what needed to go onto the tea towel. They learned a little bit more about their community. 

Secondly, all the shops sold the tea towel to passing tourists and visitors. This was a fine example of the generosity of the local people in helping out the school. Thirdly, the children had a much greater involvement in the process.

If you look closely, you will notice that a certain amount of artistic freedom was given to the project. One child wanted herself as twins. My son, aged 3, drew himself as a pirate. There's a wolf, penguins, a tortoise, reindeer, cacti and even a friendly lion. These were not normally found in the village. The children knew this, but thought people might find it funny to discover the inaccuracies. They also created a puzzle sheet to go with the tea towel.

Over the course of the year we sold more than 350 tea towels. This paid for two trips chosen by the children. We went for a day's skiing in the winter and a day's pony trekking in the summer. All-in-all, this is a wee example of how a traditional (indoor) activity can be tweaked to include elements of outdoor and community based work. 

Nature Nurture

Sometimes there are days that I wish would never end. I want to savour the magic of the moment forever. It's hard to describe what makes a perfect day as these are always a unique relationship between the people, the activities and the places that they happen. 

What a feeling!

My heart and head are still reeling from my time spent with the Nature Nurture project several weeks ago. This is a partnership programme between Family Support Projects and the local authority that aims to "provide opportunities for children from the most deprived areas of Aberdeen to have free play outdoors in natural environments. These children come from families affected by substance abuse, alcohol abuse, domestic violence and/or homelessness. They are Aberdeen's most vulnerable children."

For the past two years, the Nature Nurture Project has focused on pre-school activities, working with 18mths-5 year old children. Terri Harrison, one of the teachers involved, gives excellent presentations which explain more about the experiences and impact of this programme. 

However thanks to funding from the Scottish Government's Go Play programme, the Nature Nurture programme has been extended for children aged 5-12. Unlike the pre-school programme, this takes place during the school holidays over a 10-day period. The children are picked up daily from their homes around 9am and stay the whole day.

The day began with an informal gathering where backpacks, waterproofs and wellies were issued. The rota for riding and leading the donkeys was announced to ensure every child had the opportunity to do both, each day. 

It was a short walk to the first play destination - a little man-made stream. Here, a variety of loose parts and props had been put out beforehand, for the children to use...or not! 

The stream provided endless fun. The children experimented with wooden guttering. This was set up by the children independently. I liked the use of the chicken coop...

 They learned how to find pond creatures...

...and made paper boats and watched them float through the pipe...

...and had fun splashing around...

....and socialising...

All very simple, unstructured activities freely chosen and self-directed. The adults sensitively supported and facilitated the play. Within the hour, all the children were noticeably settled and focused.

From there, the group moved to an open hill space. Nature Nurture operates from Camphill School Aberdeen which is a beautiful campus with a rich diversity of outdoor spaces. 

Some children decided to have a game of football. Adults were invited onto the teams...

Others played on the rope swing attached to a mature oak tree.

There was an opportunity to pick blackcurrants and raspberries to take home and eat.

A popular activity was being wrapped up in the parachute and offered as a "present" to another child or adult who had to find out who was inside.

From here, the children travelled to their final destination. To get there, donkeys were used. The children had to help get them saddled up and ready to ride. 

Lunch was a barbecue in the forest. Some of the children volunteered to chop and collect firewood. One child was assigned the task of lighting the fire. The children were also free to play and explore. They enjoyed looking at the horses in the nearby field, playing hide 'n' seek and tag.

The shelters made on previous days were returned to and built upon. This child was unhappy with her seating and spent a long time finding a suitable stump. Then a mobile phone holder was made on a nearby tree!

The donkeys were used to accompany the children back to the centre. At the end of the session, each child was given their own photo album of the project. Each one was different, with commentary and photos unique to that child. It was interesting to see the children's reactions to this. They all wanted a look at each other's albums and commented positively.

What I liked about this day was the relaxed atmosphere. The only structured activity was making bows and arrows in the afternoon. There were clear rules in place about being around the fireplace and using tools. The children took great delight in ensuring that the adults followed these rules too! 

I liked how the children rose to the occasion and demonstrated very responsible behaviour. For example, one child had her mobile phone with her. It was not confiscated nor left at the centre. She sent and received one text from an auntie. At one point, music could be heard coming from her shelter. When I looked in, she and a friend were listening to a song. One song. For about 10 minutes. This reinforces my belief that digital technology need not detract from outdoor experiences. 

In terms of the positive impact of this programme, one of the children told me his family were going camping for the first time ever the following weekend so that he could show his brothers what he had learned. Three years ago, I taught this child. I often talk about him when I give presentations, because he once told me "Good families don't go outside." Apparently they do, now!