Its been an incredibly busy but wonderful time at the Inspirational Outdoors Conference at the start of this week.   My head is busily digesting everything and eager to put some new ideas into practice.   

This is the second year of the conference, it was fantastic last year and has now grown into a 2 day event packed full of workshops, talks, discussions and so many amazing ways of sharing ideas; the delegates came from across the UK with some international presence too and the ideas were flowing all over with such excitement.   

I was really delighted to be running sessions this year, as well as attending the whole conference, it was a deeply immersive experience and the layers of inspiration run deep.   I camped at the venue along with a few other participants, which enabled us to cook our meals outside as we watched dusk set in and continued to discuss so many aspects of creativity outside.   The 20 minute walk down the hillside to the beach is an added bonus and enabled us to be sat on the sand watching the sun sink below the horizon as we unpicked our ideas and thoughts around the millions of ways connections with nature encourage creativity, calm, learning and ignite curiosity.

I ran sessions which were a bit of a whistle-stop tour of exploring ways of working with clay outside and of working with natural materials to generate colours; the participants were wonderful with their ideas and enthusiasm and warm energy as we explored lots of different things.   It left me buzzing with further ideas and being able to share thoughts about ways of working creatively outside with groups feels very important.   It feeds deeply into all the long term groups I'm working with in Nottingham and Derbyshire. 

I was able to participate in so many sessions, discussions and listen to talks, its such a vital thing to have time to do this, it reinforces so much and ignites so many ideas.   Meeting and listening to Niki Buchan speak was wonderful, she'd travelled in from Australia to talk with a wealth of knowledge and examples of outdoor education from across the world.   We were all transfixed.  The fantastic Gill Mulholland from The Eden Project ran brilliant sessions on using the outside to ignite stories and poems and so much more, I also learnt to make pewter casts over an open fire, something I've wanted to have a go at for ages, the really lovely Lisa Chell ran a  great session on this.    Phil Waters ran a wonderful storytelling quest with the entire set of delegates and there was so much more going on, its hard to know where to start to digest it all!

The venue is the deeply inspirational Mount Pleasant Eco Park which holds unexpected delights at every turn - worth a visit just to see everything that's being developed there.  

​The conference is organised by the wonderful Niki Willows an outdoor play specialist and Martin Besford of Highway Farm (again, one of the most inspirational educational settings I've visited in the UK).  

Details of next years conference are here: ​https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/inspirational-outdoors-2019-cornwalls-outdoor-play-learning-conference-tickets-47063722862?aff=erelexpmlt

HUGE THANKS for the photographs below, I was too busy to take many images this year, so most of the images below were taken either by Martin Scull for the conference or by Simon Turk of Treecreepers which I am incredibly grateful for.  

Sometimes its hard to find exact words to describe experiences, especially when those experiences have been so tactile, so deep and layered with so many small moments that add up to quite overwhelming feelings.   Our residential project at Lockerbrook a week ago (June 6th – 10th) was like that and for me.  It was also layered throughout with deep thoughts about what education should and could offer children and adults (as opposed to the extreme pressures, data driven measures and budget cuts now littered throughout the education system and which many of us are now feeling all too deeply).
 
The project was a whole week residential for a group of year 4 and 5 children at Dunkirk Primary School (aged 8 – 10).   None of them had been there before although a few of the children have siblings who came away with us there in March 2015 as part of a week long residential Erasmus funded camp with Dunkirk’s link school in Finland.  Dunkirk is situated just on the edge of Nottingham city centre and although Derbyshire isn’t far really, most of the children haven’t explored Derbyshire and it was another world entirely for them.   Lockerbrook Centre (see link here) is high up in the Dark Peak area of north Derbyshire, an area of high hills, wild moorland, strange eerie rocky outcrops, vast reservoirs and little farm tracks.

​There are captions on each of these photographs I took which give a little bit more detail about the project.

The staff / project artists involved aimed for the week to be filled with creative experiences all inspired by the landscape and the remote peaceful setting.   We have used Lockerbrook several times now, it’s a stunning location run by the Woodcraft Folk, so the ethics behind the centre are very strong.  The centre is an old farmhouse with a really interesting history and the building itself will have seen many changes over the years it has sat on top of the steep hillside.  The children were fascinated by the idea of the drowned villages underneath the reservoirs – and we talked a lot about how Lockerbrook Farm would have once looked down onto a village and heard the sounds of children playing, people chattering and going about their daily work, whereas now the building looks down onto vast expanse of water.
 
The timetable for the week consisted of a real mixture of opportunities for exploration and learning and we layered so much into everything we did.  There were walks, morning and evening yoga, den building, working outside with clay, stories, cooking on the fire, songs, time to make books and draw and lots of time amidst all this to let the stunning landscape seep into you.    Everything was thought out to provide deep learning experiences, opportunities for rich conversations and language development and endless opportunities to enhance self esteem and confidence. 

A really important part of a residential like this is all the very essential and basic life skills for the children of washing, cleaning the rooms, eating at a table and chatting calmly whilst doing so, unpacking / packing your own case, getting your bag and packed lunch ready for a day outside, working out what to wear etc – all of this takes time and is crucial to wider well-being.   Much of this “everyday” stuff was of huge significance to the children, its things that can be really hard to fit into a 9-3.30 day at school but which provide such crucial life skills.
 
We built a daily routine to hook everything on – getting up, dressing, breakfast together, clearing away, making packed lunch, morning yoga followed by a day of various creative work outside and then the evening meal and eventually bedtime yoga to relax and be ready to sleep.  Of course, as anyone who has worked on a residential knows, all this is then followed by ensuring the children are in bed, helping anyone who might feel a bit strange away from home, checking on the children constantly and then making sure all plans are ready for the following day.  For adults it’s a wonderful week of work but incredibly long hours with no down time at all. 
 
We were well prepared for wet weather but actually it was hot and sunny all week – which showed off the amazing views brilliantly and also gave us a chance to connect with the local population of midges… (maybe that bit of wildlife wasn’t quite so welcome!).  

On the Monday we spent a long time creating dens in the woodland near to Lockerbrook, the challenge for the children was to build a space that would camouflage them.   They also each created guardians for their dens out of clay and natural materials (I’m often asked about the clay I use and feel its vital to point out its real clay that a potter would use and fire in a kiln, its NOT air drying clay which has pieces of plastic in and is not suitable at all to leave outside).    They worked also to animate their guardians (all still outside) and give them a voice using an ipad and a great app which records voices.  
 
Lockerbrook is situated on top of a steep hillside above Snake Pass, so it involves a walk up through a beautiful wooded hillside to reach the centre.   Once up there you can walk for miles along the hills and we were totally spoilt for choices of routes.    On the Tuesday and Wednesday we undertook two walks to take in a variety of different views, history, geography and stories.   One walk takes in the stunning landslip that forms Alport Castles, the other walk took us past Crook Hill and through the wooded hillside to the reservoirs where we could explore stories of the drowned villages.    Each of these walks was about 6 ½ miles, which is quite an undertaking for most of the children; we allowed the whole day for each walk so that we could ensure there was time for breaks along the way: time for stories, for gathering ideas, for making things and sharing thoughts – and also ice creams at one point… 

 
On the Thursday we decided to use the children’s intense fascination with the villages underneath the reservoirs and enable them to explore their ideas around this.   Its been a strong feature of the way we have worked with the children at Dunkirk over the years that we ask them big questions and give them a real chance to shape their learning.   It’s also so touching and wonderful how the children use this to explore some very strong and powerful world issues.   For me too, the fact that last years Protest Art project fed deeply into their thinking on this project was really important.   Some of the children wanted to make model villages to try and flood to see what would happen, others wanted to know what would happen if they tried to create a way of diverting the water so it didn’t flood the villages and another group wanted to make placards, banners and model people to stage a real protest about flooding the villages – they wanted to know what would happen if people were given a voice.
 
Each evening there was time for reflection and to imbed what had happened during the day.    There was drawing, guided visualisations, making books, sewing (making puppets and more), time to read, time to chat, time too for table tennis and football.   I lit a fire (in my favourite spot over looking the reservoir) and we all sat around: we cooked, we sang and we shared thoughts.   Event the night when the midges were at their most active we still sat out (if briefly) with midge hoods on – rather a strange sight!  
 
There was yoga each evening before bed (as well as each morning) led by drama / yoga practitioner Parmjit Sagoo, its such a powerful and wonderful way of the children finding calm, gathering thoughts and winding their energies into either a place ready for work or a place ready for sleep.  
 
A huge driver in the work I do is about finding places for stillness and contemplation in nature – and thereby ways of igniting curiosity.  This is crucial for my own practice but I think its vital too for children and adults who often are pushed in a fast paced education system full of intensity.   Its often incredibly hard to find places where you can sit and think and observe – and in most school days this is very rare indeed, yet learning and imbedding of knowledge come through times to consolidate and through tactile connection with the world. It’s a kind of mindfulness that is central to well-being. 

Lockerbrook is a place that provides so much wonderful space to spread out and find gentle nurturing spaces for observing the world around you (and thereby your inner world too).  When making dens or clay creations etc, its all the subtle other things that can be just as (if not more) important – the finding of intriguing leaves and sticks, the gathering of resources, the sitting under a tree and listening to natural sounds, the feel of the breeze, the realisation that moss is soft to sit on…   All this takes time and it needs adults who can facilitate a space where this is valued. 
 
On our first day whilst making dens, two of the boys discovered fallen fresh pine needles – they were totally fascinated “look at these claire, what are they?   They are like little hedgehogs, they’re bright green and they smell good and they bend and they are all a bit different – and here’s another and another… look… more of them…”   Their den making turned into a wonderful exploration to hunt and gather fallen pine needles and we had a great discussion about why it had to be the fallen ones they collected and not those still growing on the trees.   Because we were there all week they were able to keep revisiting this, they carried a selection of the pine needles around with them all week, they kept finding new ones and thereby making all sorts of amazing observations about trees and soil types – and from high up on the hill tops where they could look down onto the woodland they were making some great discoveries about the trees in the wood, how the land was managed and why…   it went on all week with more and more observations and questions.    By the last morning they were still picking up fallen pine needles and comparing them – it’s an utter delight to be on a journey of discovery like this with children.    I think as adults it can be all too easy to dismiss the small details that fascinate children – and if you don’t stop to look and question you miss SO much.    But if children are surrounded by adults who DO stop, look, value the tiny details and share the wonder, then they receive a message that their curiosity, interest, ideas and questions are valued. 
 
Another example of this was the reeds growing in many places around the centre.   Again, on the first day, when a child had found one I showed them how you could carefully peel away the outer green coating to reveal the wonderful white inner spongy world of the reed – and we talked about how people had used these as candle wicks.   The challenge to peel them caught the interests of several children but then also they discovered so many sculptural qualities of the reeds and spent ages looking at different ways they could link together.   This was still going on by the last day with more and more new discoveries being made.
 
One of the class teachers who came along made the observation about how you see such different qualities in the children on a project like this.   That it’s often the children who might struggle to sit behind a table all day and focus on desk-bound tasks (and thereby be seen as struggling in a classroom) who totally shine out as enthusiastic learners and who are completely focused on the world around them.   I feel very privileged that over the years I’ve been able to work on creative projects which enable this side of children to shine out. 

The opportunities for exciting interactions with all kinds of wildlife were everywhere at Lockerbrook.   I’m quite “nerdy” about flora and fauna and get excited by the huge variety of things surrounding us…    I don’t feel its always vital that accurate names are placed alongside each bird and plant, more that its crucial to be aware of just how many different species are around us, how they connect up and how they are part of a rich ecosystem.   We were surrounded by singing skylarks, by calling curlews (one of my favourite sounds), by buzzards mewing, by swallows swooping and chattering, by so many other birds…    There were hares grazing right outside the centre early in the morning – and this in itself held huge fascination; the children called me over early one morning from inside the building where they were looking out of the window “look Claire at that rabbit” they said – and they were utterly intrigued when I said it was a hare, they had never heard of one before…  “what is a hare?   What does it do?”   
 
There was a cuckoo calling early in the morning near the centre too, a sound so familiar from my own childhood but now a rare sound - and for very many children it isn’t a common feature of their childhood. 
 
At dusk bats were flying around and a woodcock roding too… and as darkness fell tawny owls called loudly (the children were asleep by then!).
 
All sorts of tiny and intriguing insects were around and I was delighted to find an elephant hawkmoth drying itself out on the grass on the last morning.  A couple of the children caught sight of a lizard out on one of our walks and they were totally fascinated by this and desperately trying to find more.    We could have spent the entire week searching for creatures and only scratched at the surface of what was around us.
  
I’ve been resident artist / forest school leader at Dunkirk for 9 years, which has involved many different projects and partnerships and for the past few years has involved being at the school 3 days a week working with many classes on a number of initiatives.   It means I know the children and staff well and we have developed an incredibly strong working relationship and it has meant that creative projects like this can be cross referenced with all so many other strands of work at the school.  My time at the school is now changing but hopefully there will still be opportunities to work in this way with the children and staff.  Its been an incredibly special journey and I’m endlessly inspired by the ways the children are fascinated by the world and by the questions they ask.

I’m recently returned from a week long residential project in Finland which is part of an on-going partnership exploring ways to create caring communities through drama, visual arts, film, photography, working outside and exploring landscape.   This is a follow on from the residential camp in north Derbyshire last march (see link here) and is part of a long-term link between Rastaala school in Espoo in Finland and Dunkirk Primary in Nottingham, UK.  The project is funded through an Erasmus Plus EU grant and we are really excited to have such a deep on-going dialogue between the two schools.

I’m still processing all of this and more thoughts will follow at a later date… there’s so much to take in and ponder.  I think each visit to Finland has peeled away more and more layers for me and gives opportunity for more and more reflection. 
 
One of the things I really value in my line of work is the opportunity for reflective practice and to work in partnership with others who value this too.   Residential projects like this are incredibly intense and with a packed timetable – but the total immersion in one project gives such a good opportunity for deep discussion and sharing ideas.   I feel lucky to have built up a really good working relationship with my Finnish colleagues and every time we work together we share some great conversations around pedagogy - but also much wider issues around society, landscape, community, and creativity.
 
We stayed at Velskola - a great residential centre in the middle of vast forests and lakes not too far from the outskirts of Espoo and Helsinki.    It was a very large old house converted into a residential study centre – and for our group from Dunkirk this seemed like a massive mansion, they talked about the actual setting a lot.  It’s a great place with a really welcoming cosy feel to it and just the right spaces for us to work in, including a lovely light, big, central room which we could use for the drama sessions  (complete with huge windows looking out to the forest).   
 
We had a packed programme which we had carefully devised to ensure there was a lot of time to explore the project issues around building caring communities; but with time also for exploration of the landscape and local area, time to experience the Finnish school in Espoo, time to unwind and chatter, time for bedtime relaxation sessions for the children in front of the fire… 
 
The project is funded by the EU Erasmus plus scheme (see link here), its an ongoing relationship and this is the second pupil camp as part of this particular strand of the project – see weblinks here for images and thoughts about the camp that took place in north Derbyshire in March 2015.  There was also a pupil camp in Finland in February 2014, which was part of the Comenius strand of the project and at that point also involved schools from Norway and Italy. 

Deepening our engagement and relationship with the natural world is a key part of the project.  Connections to nature and use of the outdoors permeates everything in Finland – as in the rest of Scandinavia; and part of our project is to ensure an ongoing dialogue about this so that we can share ideas and inspirations.  During our residential week we wanted to ensure that there were as many opportunities as possible for all the children and staff to explore outside and to be inspired by the setting.   So time was built in for walks along snowy paths through the forest taking in the lakes, streams, trees, animal tracks and looking at just what might be around us.  We had a wonderful night time walk through the snowy forest, moving in small (quiet) groups using torches to find our way through a trail of reflectors that had been laid earlier that day.  It was an amazing experience which really made a big impression on everyone – adults and children.   
 
The second week in February is usually the week when there is the most snow in that part of Finland (and when I was there three years ago the snow was incredibly deep).  But, like the UK, Finland has had a mixed winter with some cold and snow but also some unusually mild weather.   There had been thick snow just before we arrived but then the temperature had warmed and rain had fallen – and continued to fall whilst we were there – which began to wash a lot of the snow away.   The landscape still looked very wintry and magical BUT we were delighted when towards the end of the week there was a HUGE thick deep snowfall and our children could fully experience the Finnish winter weather. 

 The snow is rather “other-worldy” when it falls like that, especially in thick forest.    There’s a kind of stillness and silence all around and everything takes on a new look: everything from each tree to each reed is covered in a white blanket.   Shapes are changed, sounds are different and the air smells fresh…  Footprints invite speculation about what else has passed by, sounds are muffled by the thick snow and take on a whole new quality.   It’s a place for imagination and stories to emerge.

We were all (adults and children) really drawn to the endless practical things that seem to make life in Finland (and other Scandinavian countries) run so smoothly and gently.  This includes large areas for coat pegs and places for outdoor shoes and wet weather gear, the tables and chairs in the dining room (the wooden chairs slot into a tiny shelf / hook under the table to tuck them away and make it easier to clean under the tables) and so many other things that are found everywhere…   I feel really drawn to this because it links to calmness, thoughtfulness and a sense of being in the present moment.

I really love the sense of calm gentle ritual that accompanies all these practical things – taking your outdoor shoes off (snow boots for us all)  just inside the doorway of every building, making sure food is eaten calmly and shared, lighting the fire, lighting candles, making sure there’s calm time for sharing a drink and a snack…   Life in the UK can feel incredibly rushed and busy at times and an average school day can also feel very hectic.  Our children from Dunkirk Primary talked a lot about how much calmer things were in Finland, they really noticed the difference.
 
I’m a massive introvert at heart and the calm thoughtfulness that is found in Finland really appeals to me.  There’s a lot of space for contemplation, for reflection, for sitting and watching the forest and for actions to be considered and taken with care. 
 
The on-going relationship between our two schools is a really important one and staff have become firm friends as we work together.  Although a residential project like this entails very long days and you are on duty constantly, it’s such a great way to build firm links and to develop understanding of the ways we each work.    
 
I’m always so struck by how fast the children build firm bonds and make connections during projects like this – its really inspiring.  I think all the very practical creative work we were undertaking really gives great scope for that – partnership work is vital and there was a lot of space for sharing ideas non-verbally through drama, through making models and creating stop frame animations, through dance, through walking and exploring and so much more.

It was really interesting to listen to thoughts from and see the reactions of the  Dunkirk children to Finland and to Finnish life.  They are still talking about it a lot and whilst there some of the key points they discussed were:
The total lack of walls or barriers around the outside of the school
That they could HELP THEMSELVES to food at residential centre but also at the school – unlike England where portions are dished out for them
The wildlife – what might be in the vast forest…
The feel, look and size of the trees and forests – they talked a lot about how HUGE the trees were and the VAST expanse of forest
The more laid back style of school – no uniform, teachers are called by their first name, there are big soft seats and cushions etc in the big wide school corridors and much more – but it still felt safe, disciplined and it felt very calm.
 
There are so many things that only a residential project can offer – and whilst its incredibly exhausting for staff its so special – you build a different relationship with the children and with each other.  I think the adults are able to get to know the young people better because there is more time for verbal and non verbal interaction - there is time for chats over meals and during walks, there’s big scope for a wider set of nurturing things: all the opportunities for conversations and little moments that just can’t fit into a school day.
 
As we did last March in Derbyshire, the work with the children was based around a carefully chosen story which would give scope to ask deep questions and explore some key issues around community, borders, safety and ways of reaching out to strangers.   The story we used in Finland is “The Island” and is a hard hitting and stunningly illustrated book by Armin Greder.  Parmjit Sagoo (drama / yoga artist at Dunkirk) led sessions exploring the story as it stood - but then also exploring many other scenarios that could have happened and alternative endings.   The children created some very moving scenarios and their ideas about ways of reaching out in friendship were very touching.
 
My role in Finland was specifically to look at pedagogical documentation and ways of capturing the children’s explorations through film and photography.  I’ve now got a long job ahead of me to edit footage together but it’s a wonderful opportunity to be able to deeply focus on this element of the work.  I spent the week constantly fixed to cameras and tripods - either inside (in thick socks and cosy clothes) or outside in layers of warm clothes, snow boots and ice chains (I probably looked quite comical balancing tripods and cameras through the snowy forest and icy paths…).   
 
Documenting learning and discovery is a vital part in “making learning visible” (something that plays a key role in the Reggio philosophy) and crucial when it comes to finding ways to share this kind of work.  It is hard to capture this – children’s learning and discoveries are often subtle, poignant, quiet, time consuming and things are embedded as they are repeated.  When filming or photographing I don’t want to interrupt children when they are lost in their thoughts and deeply engaged in “flow state”; I don’t want posed pictures or children to be aware of the camera watching them.  It can almost feel intrusive to observe such important moments and having a really good relationship with the children is vital I think in trust being present whilst their work is being recorded on film.  
 
It wasn’t just me using cameras though, the children and other staff recorded much of the project through a variety of means and as a result we’ve got a great range of images, film and subject matter captured.  We used ipads to film, photograph, create sound recordings, make stop frame animations and to edit footage together; we used time lapse cameras and in the forest we set out night vision motion sensor cameras to see what might be about.  The combination of very hands on activities all week combined with the use of some technology struck a good balance.   One of the things the children worked on together was the creation of animations exploring connections, community and the setting in which we were working.
 
I know all of us involved in the project are digesting everything, thinking of the next steps and ways forward.  Staff from the two schools are getting together again in April but there is constant contact between staff and pupils through the internet and ideas, thoughts and work are exchanged.  I’m chipping away at editing everything – an incredibly long job – and this brings a lot of reflective thought in the process.
 
It’s a privilege to be able to work in partnership in this way with adults and children; especially when it’s a partnership that sets out to ask deep questions and to explore issues which search into areas that many projects wouldn’t touch.  We live in an ever-changing world (we always have) and notions of community are crucial as we explore what it means to be a caring and diverse  society.   Its vital to be faced with situations that challenge, that put you out of your comfort zone, that stretch you and that ask searching questions. 
 
And a walk through the forest is always filled with stories… if you just take time to listen…
 

There's lots more images and further information about the residential project in Finland  on the Small Action Big Change project website here.

And further thoughts from those of us who took part are also to be found here.

Am just back from a week long retreat on the coast of Snowdonia with close friends who are all artists; we’ve been sharing ideas, discussing thoughts and work related issues, making new things, experimenting, exploring and gathering inspirations.   Such a precious way to spend time – and something that feels vital but is quite rare to make time for.

We’ve found a cottage that we’ve returned to (a wonderful thing when you discover somewhere like that); it has a truly inspirational wildlife-friendly garden with perfect views of the sea and mountains.  There’s hills behind with red kites, ravens and buzzards soaring so close at hand, and at the bottom of the garden at sea are so many interesting wading and sea birds – with the added delight of seals and dolphins.  My binoculars were close by constantly and there was so much to be found in the details in the landscape around us.

I really love living in Derbyshire, but the sea is a huge pull for me and to spend days on end gazing at a vast expanse of waves has been incredibly special.  Its incredibly meditative watching the landscape like that, the colours and lines in the sea, clouds and distant mountains changed constantly.  

We all created a huge range of work in response to our time there – and also in response to the ideas we were sharing together.  Textiles, old books, paint, photography, printing inks, yarns, words, found objects, drawing and stitching all wove themselves together as we worked and gathered thoughts. 

In vast open landscapes like that I find myself drawn to the bigger sweeps of colours and textures – but also to the teeny tiny details that hide away, clinging to the crevices and nooks and crannies.  The cottage beach was a treasure trove of drift wood, pebbles, crab shells, seaweed in a rainbow of colours and little plants such as thrift growing in tiny cracks in the rocks. 

Amongst other things I began a series of lino-cuts whilst there and am now working on these back in Derbyshire.  I'm also further exploring working with old books and found text - adding words onto drift wood and pebbles and making tiny books out of old books.   

Sherwood Art Week 2014.

I've just had various pieces of work exhibited as part of Sherwood Art Weeks - and what a wonderful event it has been.

Katy Doncaster and I (as Some Curious Finds) have just completed another installation at the very wonderful Scarthin Books in Cromford, Derbyshire. 

We've taken the idea of a Persian rug or heavily patterned fabrics found in places like Victorian drawing rooms; we've created a repeat pattern of photographs which we've taken of various objects that connect directly to the books in the room.  The bookshop is an absolute treasure trove of second hand and new books, its an independent bookshop, with a great café and the whole place has a wonderful ethos, we love working with them.  Our work is in the Art Room (next to the Childrens Book Room which we created work for a couple of years ago), and features images of a host of things - we love how they've become rather abstracted once they form a repeat pattern.  You notice more and more as you look at it.