Prep 5 Experience a Woodland Immersive Experience

Mrs Claire Casson – Prep 5 Teacher

What a fabulous day in the woods! 

Prep 5 traded their traditional desks for the canopy of Heaton Park, embarking on a brilliant Woodland Immersive Experience with the team from Communitree. It was a day packed with adventure, teamwork, and some truly exciting science.

We began our morning by gathering around the campfire, lifting our voices in song, and playing games to shake off the rain. Of course, no campfire experience is complete without treats, so we enjoyed toasting brioche buns and sipping hot chocolate.

Once we were warmed up, it was time to become true eco-detectives. We learnt so much about the woodland habitat, discovering the diverse flora and fauna that call Heaton Park home, and discussing how we can better look after our local environment.

A big takeaway for Prep 5 was understanding that the forest is an integral part of our community. We talked about our symbiotic relationship with nature—how we rely on the woods and how the woods rely on us to protect them. It is a bond that needs to be cherished.

Did you know that some mushrooms eat plastic? We were fascinated to learn about specific fungi that can actually begin to decompose plastic in a matter of weeks! We were so inspired by this that we want to start our own Oyster mushroom decomposition project in our outdoor classroom very soon. Watch this space!

In the afternoon, we put our Prep 5 community spirit to the test. Working together in teams, the pupils showed off their engineering skills by building some truly wonderful dens. We also searched the forest floor for unique flowers and plants, which we harvested to help make our very own handmade paper.

We even braved a bit of foraging! The instructors showed us how to safely pick stinging nettles without getting stung, and we dared to eat them right there in the woods. They were surprisingly tasty, and we are already planning to brew our own batch of nettle-ade back at school.

To wrap up an unforgettable day, we gathered back around the campfire for one final tradition. We ended the day toasting marshmallows and enjoying delicious s’mores.

It was a wonderfully immersive experience for us all, and Prep 5 returned to school with a renewed sense of Community and lots of ideas of how to develop this concept further.