Learning through Connection
Learning through Connection enables young people to learn and grow with Nature as Teacher through real life experiences that can be accredited in different ways to prepare them for life and having their own unique and fulfilled contribution to society.
Accreditation Pathways:
We take the key elements of the GCSE subject content for multiple key courses and weave these into bite size practical real-life applied, integrative, experiences to build a portfolio of knowledge and skills. We meet the young people where they are at and provide age appropriate topics developed over many sessions and set themes every half-term to work and learn through. Each session's content can stand alone, or develop knowledge and skills over time, and be used to enrich and support tutoring or self directed study at home.
From September we will be using AQA Award Units scheme to provide Accreditation for our outdoor learning sessions across a variety of topics. AQA units are mapped units that follow the GCSE core curricula subjects. They give young people a record of their achievements both practical and theoretical to provide a portfolio of certificates to evidence their skills, knowledge and experience in their life long learning journey. This accreditation pathway is well suited to our sessions and allows small steps to be recognised to build on a sense of achievement and confidence for all learners to develop comprehensive understanding and mastery of topics over time.
From January we are working also to bring in the Arts Award to our sessions. This provides young people with another accreditation pathway where they explore Arts in all forms, by taking part in arts activities, researching artists or crafts people, and then sharing art discoveries with others. It is an award that can be undertaken from ages 5 to 25 years. We love this award because it focuses on boosting creativity, curiosity, confidence and communication skills. What better place to do this than in Nature.
In all our sessions we will be exploring and covering topics from the GCSE or iGCSE core curricula subjects of Maths, English, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Art and Design, Engineering, Geography and Geology alongside our Fire and Wild Cooking Accreditations, AQA Unit Awards and the Arts Award interwoven with greenwood work projects, games, story-making and telling, and space to follow your own self-led interests for real life learning with Nature as Teacher.
Development of all levels of being:
We recognise and facilitate an environment that allows young people to engage all their senses and develop on all levels of being - Physical, Emotional, Intellectual and Spiritual:
Practical Intelligence is learning practical skills that allow our young people to function in the real world, solve practical problems, create and actualise functional form, structure and objects.
Emotional Intelligence is having self awareness, self regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills, and the ability to perceive, use, understand, manage, and handle emotions.
Cognitive intelligence is to learn, remember, reason, solve problems, and make sound judgments. It involves various cognitive processes and functions, such as attention, memory, language, and problem-solving.
Spiritual Intelligence is the ability to comprehend deeper meanings, values, everlasting purposes, and unconscious elements of yourself brought into consciousness. Most importantly, it’s the ability to embody this in your daily life. In this context, “spiritual” means the fundamental nature of existence, the essence of life itself.
Social Intelligence is the capacity to know oneself and to know others. Social intelligence is learned and developed from experience with people, and learning from success and failures, in social settings. Social intelligence is the ability to understand your own and others actions justly, in context and truth.
Nature as Teacher. We are Nature. Nature offers a true curriculum for life that transcends academic disciplines, geographical boundaries and demographics. Nature, indeed, is the greatest teacher. It teaches us about the interconnectedness of everything, the laws of cause and effect, and the complexity of balance. Nature’s constant cycles reveal a rhythm of death and rebirth, like day and night, moon cycles and seasons. It teaches us about the necessity of change and how change brings about balance and renewal. Nature teaches us about individuality, inter-depedancy and our vital contribution to the whole, all necessary for the tapestry of life to work effectively and thrive.