Footprints in Cambridgeshire Final Report

Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination Footprints in Cambridgeshire Final Report August 2012

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Footprints in Cambridgeshire Final Report August 2012

Summary:

An initial evaluation of two Footprints projects run by Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination (CCI) in Cambridgeshire Early Years settings during the summer term of 2012 based on observations and documentation gathered throughout.

Background:

CCI works with the fundamental belief that children are strong, inventive, full of rich potential, and can lead the way in exploring, discovering, and making meaning in all their learning environments. Footprints projects work with adults and the children in their care to develop each group’s capacity and confidence to engage meaningfully in outside spaces, and to work with these insights back in their homes and classrooms. The projects work with the values of: enabling children to lead, learning as dialogue and engagement, collaboration, slowliness, serious play, meeting the wild space, and the connected classroom.

These projects were commissioned in February. The two settings selected using data supplied by the County Council and CCI’s knowledge of suitable spaces for outdoor learning were: • Kidzone Childcare Services nursery children and Lattersey Nature Reserve, Whittlesey • Shirley Primary School reception class and Bramblefields Nature Reserve, East Chesterton, Cambridge

Both settings confirmed their commitment to the project in March and had initial meetings with CCI before term ended. Neither group had visited their reserves before or been involved in outdoor learning projects of this kind.

An evaluation framework was prepared that had two key questions:

Have the projects improved children’s progress and attainments?

Have the projects changed children’s attitudes and/or disposition to learning?

Further data to support these questions are currently being gathered and will be analysed by staff at the County.

MEETING THE WILD The Projects

Key features of the projects included:

• Two CCI practitioners working alongside each staff team (Deb Wilenski worked across both projects, with Filipa Pereira Stubbs in Cambridge and Sally Todd in Whittlesey).

• A project introduction in each setting for parents explaining benefits of the project and allaying potential fears • A project planning session in each setting prior to first visit for educators to establish key principles and aims and familiarise all • staff with their reserve • 10 consecutive woodland visits for each group (mornings) • 10 classroom visits (afternoons) to each setting by CCI practitioners to link learning and questions between ‘wild space’ and classroom • Regular project reflections in each setting with staff to draw out key learning and plans for future (lunchtimes and via notes) • A commitment to documentation and making visible the learning through a project blog • A project celebration in each setting with parents to share insights and stories • A final shared reflection meeting for all staff from both projects to share observations and learning

Each project established three specific values to focus on. Kidzone’s were time, equality, and child-led. Shirley’s were letting the children lead, calmness and a sense of wonder.

When the staff groups articulated their hopes and fears for the Footprints project, there was a palpable sense of wanting to leave familiar ways in order to shift educational paths both for themselves as teachers and for the children:

I’m hoping that we’ll gain a deeper knowledge of the children, of the things they like, of their understanding of things, their creativity, their imagination. I’m hoping they’ll speak a hundred times more outside than they do inside, and have more freedom to express themselves…

I’m hoping it will change our practice, and our curriculum…

(Jane Taylor, Shirley Primary School)

We used to go off, climb trees, run, into big open spaces, investigate what was there…No adults to talk about anything or show me… we were there looking, seeing, finding, investigating. That has a big impact on your life and that’s what I’d like for our children.

(Julie Chambers, Shirley Primary School)

ENABLING CHILDREN TO LEAD

We re-visited both the sets of values and the educators’ hopes and fears in different ways through the project: through focussed lunchtime or end of day reflection sessions, through self-evaluation around a set of continuums to do with practice and pedagogy, and through an invitation to all staff to write about their experiences for the Blog and for the end of project meeting.

The Children

As we have come to expect in these projects, we saw:

- How the children thrived in these outdoor spaces. The children immediately took ownership, deciding for themselves which way to go, where to go next, and when to return to key places. They were making connections between places through internal and external mapping and narratives, discovering for themselves the many possibilities within each wild space through their senses, whole bodies, and imaginings. We seemed to be answering a fundamental need that wasn’t yet being met in nursery or school.

- How they can be transformed by these experiences. We saw shy and fearful children become bold and pioneering; children who were silent in class become expressive and skillfully descriptive in the woods; strong children who often overpowered others in the classroom found ways to become included and generous in return. For other children changes came gradually but were just as significant, building persistence, patience and determination, and a huge sense of satisfaction which in turn encouraged their explorations further.

- How important it is to offer time and slowliness. From an initial sense of excitement, there was also apprehension on some of the educators’ part for the children’s safety. At Lattersey especially, we saw much hand-holding and directing as the children attempted to explore the exciting new landscape. There were also some preconceptions of individual abilities and limitations, and it was only over time that trust and reappraisal of a child's competence and potential started to grow.

Through the weeks as the groups’ journeys deepened, and enquiries were built on, the children and staff together experienced a sense of settledness and calm. Julie remarked how this made it possible for the children to notice fine detail in plants and animals; Jane said the calmness enabled children to speak more and to be heard in a way that didn’t happen in the classroom. Mark and Steve noticed how with slow time silent children spoke in the woods. Dynamic energetic children stopped to tell stories or describe places they had been.

Individual children who needed time to express their thoughts and patience to discover their fascinations, were able to be given time.

Delicate interests lost in the classroom setting became established and valued.

- How the wild outdoors supports children’s imagination and creativity. The imaginative journeying of the children was also immense. Woods and wild places have always been a context for storying and fantasy offering key place for children to play out their big concerns and questions.

At Lattersey a single story was lived collectively by the children - in their enquiry into bigness they met Riley’s story of the bear (see blog).

It became a shared evolving narrative, an explanation for events (like the rope disappearing), a questing journey to find and fight a powerful adversary, a creative inspiration for drawing and modelling immensity and the dangerous unknown.

At Bramblefields stories began early in the project and became prolific. We re-defined what a story could be, where and how it could be written - as a result children who were not usually interested in narrating or mark-making began to experiment with this new language of expression. There were again stories of powerful danger and bravery, but also many stories of transformation, of being and becoming something else. In a breathtakingly simple exchange at the beginning of one session as we sat in our beginning circle, the children themselves seemed to voice their sense of literally and imaginatively coming alive in the woods:

“I was born on the climbing tree” Kiemute

“I was born in space and Mars” Nabil

“I was born in the sky, on a cloud” Hayden

“I was born in a cat’s cave” Tyler

It was also particularly striking in these projects how:

- The children explored with high levels of decisiveness, confidence and adaptability in what were complex and extensive physical environments – there was nobody who did not engage immediately with the wildness even though both sites included large patches of nettles and brambles.

- ‘Bigness’, scale and difficulty were important qualities of the environment that many of the children searched for and stayed with. They found challenging places to climb, muddy terrain to negotiate, sheer slopes, high trees, prickly passages through undergrowth, places to hide.

- Children expressed capability and autonomy as well as cooperation with each other to overcome difficulties.

- An interest in tiny detail became the foundation, when given time and value, for highly focussed enquiries.

Summary:

Julie, the nursery nurse at Shirley, reflected on how the ‘next steps’ which they as educators identify for individual children are in fact tiny compared to the ones the children found for themselves. Returning to the evaluation question of whether and how these projects improved children’s progress and attainment, attitudes and dispositions, we can from CCI’s perspective offer the following observations to join the Council’s evaluation from profile statistics:

We witnessed and recorded many new developments in the children’s capabilities - physical, imaginative, emotional, social, - and in their learning. These included: - greater leadership even in children who had not been seen as leaders before - new and extended collaborations between individuals and groups of children - more fluent and extensive communications between children and adults, and between the children themselves - the development of play and exploration even in large groups that needed little instruction from each other - a shared understanding and calm concentrated focus between children - marked increases in agility, co-ordination, bravery, orientation and sense of place - marked increases in sociability, inclusion, respect for each other’s skills and differences - a clear persistent growing expression of happiness and pride around physical capabilities, creative expression, and discovering beauty - a new conception amongst the children of themselves as authors, builders, explorers, and holders of important knowledge.

REVISITING SCALE, GENEROSITY AND CHILDREN’S IDEAS

In addition, the relationships that developed between children, and their growing sense of self and contentment with who they are, enabled the children to approach learning experiences and explorations with increased enthusiasm and for some with new intensity and involvement.

- In particular we noticed: flexibility and cooperation in relationships formed around shared ideas and interests, enabling collaborative work - powerful enthusiasm in decision making about what children wanted to do in the woods - anticipation and detailed planning between children through the week about the next visit - increased persistence and determination to reach their own goals and ideals - recognition of other children’s efforts and struggles and offers of help or knowledge - a readiness to experiment and try things for the first time - sophisticated thinking in developing narratives and ideas from week to week

In both projects, as we would expect from previous work of this kind, children’s language and communication flourished. Jane observed in our final reflection session that:

This continuous celebration and encouragement of stories has encouraged reluctant writers to engage. It may be the informal chance to write what they want how they want, the wish to hang their story books on the story line or to hear their stories during a circle time. It may be that they want an adult to scribe or the fact that they can take a home-made book to a quiet place in the woods, or lie on the rug in the centre of the woods, but what ever it is this combination of experiences and opportunities has encouraged the class to become authors and story tellers. Reluctant writers have been picking up pencils and mark making or phonetically writing single words or sentences. This is one of the major successes of the project; story writing.

Jane Taylor (Teacher, Shirley Primary).

Children are most interested in listening to and discussing their own stories and play (Vivian Gussin Paley has written extensively and brilliantly about this). We noticed in these projects that children were able to:

- listen attentively to each other’s stories and comments - join discussions prompted by stories, or add their own related narratives - offer explanations and theories through language and thinking immediately in the woods or in reflective sessions afterwards - speak fluently, often with dramatic flair and growing confidence to an audience - persist with spoken and written language even if this was a difficult way for them to make themselves understood

The Educators

The impact on both staff groups was striking. The projects gave them the opportunity in particular to see the children differently and to reflect on their own practice in both the wild outdoors and inside settings.

Both our observations and their own demonstrate how the educators’ understandings and practice developed during the project:

• They began to recognize children as powerful and capable, questioning their own initial judgements and assumptions

All spoke of the process of learning to trust the children, of allowing them to lead and of having to revise or revisit assessments of their children. They grew in confidence and understanding of how to establish the sessions and manage the time outside, each project developing their own approach to agreeing boundaries with the children.

Educators at Kidzone in particular had to learn to stand back and realize this was still an active, caring, supportive and enabling thing to do for the children. We worked on this shift from dependence to competence through analyzing the educators’ perceptions of their roles in the nursery, and the ‘image of the child’ they were carrying.

Mark reflected:

We feel that we are more confident in letting the children slightly out of sight but close enough to hear. We feel that a higher level of trust has been gained and given to the children. We have adapted to not leading or controlling a group and allowing that group to choose their own activity. We have had to learn not to help a child and to step back and see if a child is capable, or if that child asks for our help that's when we step in. Adapting ourselves to allow danger or risks without removing them and have an understanding that certain things are going to happen to the children but they won't get hurt.

Steve from Kidzone also observed how you need to keep looking. He offered the example of Lizzie playing alone in nursery and his initial interpretation of this and her character; his realization from seeing her in the woods that sociable strong directive play was a big part of her character, and that playing alone in the nursery context was a choice rather than a limitation of inhibiting shyness.

They really talk to me out here‌. it has allowed me to see the children differently. (Steve)

The process of trusting the children felt more complex for some educators. At Bramblefields it took time for Jane to find a way of being outdoors with the children that satisfied the sense of direct responsibility she carried, and the general adult consensus/hope that the children be as free as possible. Because the geography of the space necessitated trusting the children - they could not be seen at all times - over the weeks, she was able to see that in actuality nothing bad did happen, and that even after playing independently and freely, the children were still able to come back when she blew a whistle to signal the end of the morning.

Educators were able to take time and care to listen to children, • respond to their invitations and make space for their ideas.

This was a striking shift for many, but particularly for Mark from Kidzone who shared at the final meeting his realisation of the children’s capacity to create and share stories together and his pleasure in already trying to offer them opportunities to do this.

Jane felt a great relief that time was slower and more attentive in the woods –that she had time to notice and take up the children’s many invitations to ‘come and see’ which allowed her to get to know her children, even the quiet ones. She began to trust the children more in the woods, to see the strength in what they were able to do without frequent reminders of what they ‘should’ be doing.

I’ve noticed lots of planning about what to do amongst them, not just out here but in the classroom and in the playground. I’m much more aware of it and I wonder if this has come through the deeper relationship that they have formed with each other. (Jane) • They were able to value the children’s ideas and discoveries and see them as authors, story-makers and creators

All the staff were struck by the extent to which these outdoor spaces inspired the children creatively. They were influenced by the CCI practitioners’ approach – the unconditional positive regard for all ideas, the offer of notebooks and paper to encourage mark making, the invitation to scribe stories for children, and the opportunities to share stories.

Jane had wondered initially if the children’s stories would move on from being “meandering”. But as the story telling spread and became prolific her thinking changed and she was able to see that when children’s offerings are valued as they are, they continue to be offered and sophistication can come through the children’s own discoveries of narrative skills from each others’ stories and from experimentation.

• Educators valued the opportunities for learning through play that the outdoors supported

They saw the potential for these spaces to make opportunities for new friendships to form and important ideas to be explored. Julie was particularly perceptive about the power games a large group of children (mainly boys) developed often around computer game characters/tv stories – talking of the “prowess” children wanted to demonstrate and have seen by their peers and teachers:

This type of play where children have been particularly keen to show off their prowess with daring acrobatic moves seems to support and strengthen relationships, and this has transferred back to-playing with scale, simplicity, openness, and invention.

Summary:

Footprints projects offer significant opportunities for professional development. The wild environment, unlike the classroom, is not ours to own, manage or plan. This means educators have needed to leave some familiar structures and assurances behind, and develop new confidence. They have been able to: - work with and develop skills of observation and perception in a challenging and changing environment - learn how to explore and discover alongside children, sometimes seeing new possibilities but more often making the kind of space needed for children to discover for themselves - develop enquiries as they emerge from the children’s authentic experiences and curiosity in the wild environment - experiment with ways of extending these enquiries back in the classroom through reflection, analysis, and interpretation - offer creative opportunities to develop children’s enquiries in ways that have carried some of the qualities of wild exploration- playing with scale, simplicity, openness, and invention.

The Classrooms

THE CONNECTED CLASSROOM

The projects were established with the clear aim of developing explicit connections between the wild outdoor space and the classroom. We wanted both settings to experience some of the notable qualities of children’s learning and relationships in the woods, back in their everyday environments and practice. We worked to dispel the myth that these qualities could only survive or develop in the wild place with its spaciousness, beauty, and intrigue. We discussed and built practice to enable: calmness, focus, absorption, fascination, collaboration, cooperation, and adaptability in the classroom.

One approach was to make changes in the environment. Picking up one of the key values at Shirley - calmness - it was suggested gently quite near the beginning of the projects that the classroom “noise” could be simplified, by removing some of the activities, by covering the busy walls that were organised and designed by adults for children, and by supporting the focus of the children by encouraging them to stay with one activity, rather than set up many different ones in any given space. In order to do this, the activities had to be dear to the children, and had to be generated by the children and adults in collaboration, from the children’s authentic stories, images, and constructions.

We introduced and persevered with the practice of offering simple open-ended materials in clear spaces and in generous amounts paper, pastels, clay, slate and willow. It was difficult in the early weeks to achieve a calm enough atmosphere and environment for extended focus, but gradually change began.

At Kidzone for example, the children, back in the setting, were swept up into the rhythm and noise of the day but slowly, in a corner of the nursery, through gently revisiting the place of the woods through images and words, and by extending this thread with an offer of mark making materials and especially clay (clay in large enough quantity to rekindle and excite the children with the connection of the earth and mud and smell of the outdoors) the children began to experiment and express themselves through the medium. The adults as a consequence began again to reconsider and reposition themselves in relation to the children - from ‘doing for’ to being alongside... tentative beginnings to an altered practice of responding to the children’s interests.

We also tried ways of calming and focusing by working with small groups collected together around observed shared interests. Using the classroom and other places as workshop spaces to work on a particular idea or fascination, with specific combinations of children. Towards the end of the project the afternoon sessions were perceived to be calmer, more focused, and the depth and creativity of the children’s work was commented on by the educators in both settings.

Summary:

Both settings needed to make new room for children’s authentic enquiries and knowledge in their inside environments: - physically - in terms of wall space and its content - attitudinally - developing a belief that children’s internal curriculums have vital importance and potential for development

- imaginatively – seeing the theories, thinking, engagement with big concepts, meaning-making and questions in children’s own fascinations - organizationally – finding new time in the day to explore children’s ideas further - materially – by clearing environments, and offering simple openended materials for creative experimentation and expression.

Our learning (CCI)

Looking back over these projects and the impact they have had on the children and staff in each setting, we think that:

CCI’s expertise was crucial in supporting settings to build confdence in and an understanding of the exciting possibilities their local reserves offered.

The project design worked well. Settings needed this amount of time and frequency of visits to build confidence in the process, to fully appreciate the impact of these experiences on their children and to begin to reflect on their own practice. A comment made at the final reflection was ‘we have reached the beginning’. The expertise and breadth of experience enabled by having pairs of CCI practitioners in each setting was important.

Finding time for reflection and sharing within the project teams was challenging with lunchtimes often squeezed and constrained but that projects had to commit to trying.

The blog offered an important space for making the learning visible and where staff did take the time to contribute their own reflections, helped them to see the impact of the work more clearly.

Designing the projects to make explicit the connections with the children’s classroom was essential - through these insights and understandings sustainable changes in practice were begun. There is great potential for this connected learning:

Children are becoming focussed on and paying attention to tiny detail.They are calm enough and have the time to discover, notice and appreciate the beauty of the flowers, insects and other natural objects, demonstrating their curiosity, enthusiasm and concentration.

When considering how to develop and support children’s learning in literacy and numeracy, these opportunities to notice patterns and detail are invaluable. (Julie Chambers, Shirley)

What next?

Both staff groups expressed a determination to maintain their links to their reserves at the final reflection meeting. Kidzone spoke of continuing throughout their summer holiday work but also of offering opportunities to all the primary schools their children go on to. Jane fed back that her Headteacher is committed to the work and has outdoor learning in the school development plan.

Our questions:

What support do these two staff groups need to maintain their learning?

How can these projects be best shared with the Forest network and more widely?

How can more work of this depth and quality be enabled in the county?

REDEFINING WHAT A STORY COULD BE

What unfolded throughout the ten weeks was a very moving journey of the shifting relationship between the adult staff and children. For the core group of children who returned to the woods every week, their confidence and collective 'ownership' of the woods became manifest - from 'I'm killing the trees cos they're laughing at me' to 'I can climb inside that tree and all the way along to the top!’ to the boy who had found expressing himself through language a struggle to be understood, suddenly revealing his deep fascination and facility for building, inspired by the place of the woods, demonstrating his sensitivity for material and his spatial awareness. And for the adults their repositioning from over anxious carer to attentive observer‌ beginning to notice in the children independent and bold individuals with their own ideas and theories.

(Sally Todd, CCI artist, Lattersey project)

More details of these projects can be found on our blog: www.cambsfootprints.wordpress.com Further information on the Footprints programme: www.cambridgecandi.org.uk/what_we_do/footprints

A recent publication - 37 Shadows: listening to children's stories from the woods - can be read online at: www.cambridgecandi.org.uk/current/publications/ This illustrated booklet of children's stories and pictures was drawn from the Histon Children's Centre Footprints project in Homefield Park, Histon, Cambridgeshire.

Printed copies also available.

Histon Footprints blog can be found at: www.histonfootprints.wordpress.com www.cambridgecandi.org.uk