Jon Cree

Training Coordinator, Bishops Wood Centre, Worcestershire County Council

Jon Cree has been involved in environmental education and training for over 30 years and is currently the training coordinator and manager of the 11-19 programme at the renowned Bishops Wood Centre in Worcestershire. This talk considers the ways in which the impact of creative educational approaches used in outdoor settings can be linked more directly to the new national curriculum.

Forest Education Network National Networking Day Creativity and the new national curriculum

“Nature belongs at the heart of school life”

Guess who said that last month

We can imagine all this pulling on real experiences and make it imaginable, knowing our connection to the fluttering of a butterfly on the other side of the world makes us imaginative and visioning a new world such as polar bears living in deserts imaginary – our imagination makes us infinite (in the words of John Muir) and the natural world enables us to act this out more easily.

Imagination = Creativity =Innovation Edith Cobb, 1950

Imagination is the source of creativity – not the same thing. Imagination is the ability to bring to mind that are not present to our senses but can imagine both things that exist and things that don’t. If I ask you to think of your favourite tree, a table in your house, a fox prowling through a dark wood, I bet you all slightly different mental images based on your experiences these are imaginable . A fairy holding three golden eggs in a thorn tree a bear wearing a green dress now your bringing to mind something you haven’t experienced, at least I assume not! – these are imaginative i.e. composed in the mind. Imagination – our primary gift of human consciousness – we can review and revisit the past, take on different views and show empathy see with others eyes and feel with their hearts and use it to form our own views – utilising both hemispheres – good brain gym. Without imagination we cannot predict and therefore create a future! Take this little girl creating an aerial railway and made concrete using natural materials

The national curriculum provides pupils with an introduction to the essential knowledge that they need to be educated citizens. It introduces pupils to the best that has been thought and said; and helps engender an appreciation of human creativity and achievement.

The national curriculum provides pupils with an introduction to the essential knowledge that they need to be educated citizens. It introduces pupils to the best that has been thought and said; and helps engender an appreciation of human creativity and achievement. Whether this means studying great minds is open to interpretation

Miyupimaatisiium – cree connections

Anam cara – celtic connections

Biophylia – genetic connections

The Extinction of Experience – Pyle, 1978

Miyupimaatisiium = being alive well – saturated in values = well being/land/health and identity Anam Cara = truth/beauty/inner soul/soul mate – all encompassing including relationship to the whole Biophyllia = genetically hard wired into other life forms E O Wilson

“We are human in good part because of the particular way we affiliate with other organisms and land....they offer the challenge and freedom innately sought. To the extent that each person can feel like a naturalist, the old excitement of the untrammeled world will be regained. I offer this as a formula of re-enchantment to invigorate poetry and myth....'“

In order to create meaning from our imagination we need to utilise both hemispheres – the left thinking connections and abstract the right more analytical making meaning of the imaginative – whole brain approach need to be able to process story – thats what natural world and particularly woods help us do by giving time and space and materials to test our thoughts and activate three of our emotional systems that can activate the higher order thinking.

The limbic system (emotional driver of the brain) has 7 sets of emotional systems – the SEEKING system is the granddaddy – it is this, along with the PLAY and CARE systems, that drives creativity Adventure, problem solving and challenge – the process stimulates this system = dopamine=higher order thinking

Adventure, problem solving and challenge – the process stimulates this system = dopamine=higher order thinking

Creativity

Creativity is a step on from imagination – it brings imagination into the real realm it involves doing something – putting imagination to work. We can have this stimulated by seeing shapes in the trees feeling the wood, playing with materials such as mud – it is applied imagination in maths, in writing, in making, in music etc etc. The hand is the cutting edge of the mind (Jacob Bronowski – ascent of man)

Maths Shapes, space and measures (descriptors) Level 1 When working with 2D and 3D shapes, pupils use everyday language to describe properties and positions. They measure and order objects using direct comparison, and order events. Level 5 When constructing models and when drawing or using shapes, pupils measure and draw angles to the nearest degree, and use language associated with angle. Pupils know the angle sum of a triangle and that of angles at a point. They identify all the symmetries of 2D shapes. They know the rough metric equivalents of imperial units still in daily use and convert one metric unit to another. They make sensible estimates of a range of measures in relation to everyday situations. Pupils understand and use the formula for the area of a rectangle.

Sparking the imagination

Through sensory stimulation that serves the making of meaning. The natural world helps us perceive connections and fine tune our knowledge and restore our concentration – Stephen Kaplan called it soft fascination which generates ‘thinking neurons – nature neurons. “Nature is certainly well-endowed with fascinating objects, as well as offering many processes that people find engrossing” (p.174). There’s clouds, sunsets, leaves rustling in the breeze, and attending to these patterns doesn’t take much effort. Story is the main medium is a natural human thought pattern to create story and narrative – can help if use props or apply to metaphor of the natural world – e.g. sowing the seeds of life and cherry tree is the tree of joy and brings happiness and lightness – oak the tree of protection and safety.

........guided discovery

..using symbols and motifs

Can create an atmosphere of guided discovery to stimulate the imagination and understanding – a treasure trail through the woods suddenly coming across a picnic of teddy bears – how did they get here what did they overcome and how did they survive! Becoming reporters for the day to explore and record the inhabitants and their jobs in two community and find their missing link.

Science Life processes and living things (descriptor) Level 2 Pupils use their knowledge about living things to describe the basic conditions [for example, a supply of food, water, air, light] that animals and plants need in order to survive. They recognise that living things grow and reproduce. They sort living things into groups, using simple features. They describe the basis for their groupings [for example, number of legs, shape of leaf]. They recognise that different living things are found in different places [for example, ponds, woods].

Level 4 ……They use keys based on observable external features to help them to identify and group living things systematically. They recognise that feeding relationships exist between plants and animals in a habitat, and describe these relationships using food chains and terms [for example, predator and prey]. Level 5

Being with life is so important – in the moment, flow – a desire to know the object of our emotional response. Story of boy at St Marys at Kiddersminster – year 2 working at a level 4 in science!! He knew everything about woodlice – teacher explained he had wanted to use a key and find out what they ate and how they lived … “did you know (the boy told me) – woodlice eat dead leaves and trees so they can make the soil good – also, and this is the amazing thing about them they can have lots of eggs which the mum keeps in a pouch and when they hatch she stays with them to protect them until they are full adults and when they are prey they roll up to protect themselves. And another thing – they breath through their rear legs!”

...incorporating a sense of life

Sense of life Constantly ask oneself what each feature of the event explains about life (for content development) Incorporate as many signs of ongoing life, or living going on at the present moment (for developing setup) Point out (or have prepared as stated) features and clues for the presence of life that relate to the experience Is there freshness, vitality, sound, motion, and smells Tie in the processes of life Are you interpreting life (not history or nature) Being aware that without adding ‘a sense of life’ the experience will be dead, and receive a lifeless response from the students

...setting a challenge

...having participatory roles

Create out of the imagination ..... time to play and reflect, the woodland USP

Story – chicken little. When an acorn falls on her head she screams the sky is falling in. Her panic alarms one animal after another. Before long they all run as fast as they can to the kings castle to tell him about it. On the way they meet fox who genially offers to show them the way – the promised palace is his den where he promptly devours them all. In a similar Jakatan story a young lion stops an equally panicked group after much and hare tells lion he heard a terrible thud. The earth is breaking apart and all the animals are scurrying to save themselves. Lion instead of killing them has hare lead him back to the place where he heard the crash and shows him the earth is intact and the tale unfolds to a happy ending – each animal goes where he wants to be bat in the sky etc. Iet the calm questioning of young lion (a Buddha) allowed the animals to survive their panic and generate new viewpoints – consciousness raising questions. The point is what we do with the imagination and meaning – the illumination of an important value and evocation of a desire to pursue a behaviour that harmonizes and the acquisition of skills to do so is at the heart of taking the creativity further into meaningful active understanding. James – give his background then quote “ doing and making weird things just didn’t make sense then simply because he could use his hands to make something that meant something meant he felt better about himself. During the action . Stories can help – James “listening to the stories and then doing things made me think and act differently. They helped me know what I did and didn’t know. The stories also made me wander about things in the woods and do something constructive with my hands and best of all, they stopped me getting broody and angry.”

Create out of the imagination ..... time to play and reflect, the woodland USP ...and sometimes just leaving some tools out half finished work is enough!

Freedom is the key and free choice with no one dictating and directing – just the wood doing it! Children's desire for freedom is unquenchable and in the woods it is much easier to leave them alone and let the woodland learning happen – DH Lawrence rules 1st leave him alone 2nd ditto and 3rd ditto – THAT is the whole beginning.

“I feel free, its green, calm and more able to think and be”

“When I come here I belong – you guys are chill”

“I feel I can make suggestions and have learnt different ways of thinking and looking at problems from different views – like the building trade and how to make it more environmental”

SEEKING meaning, Adventure, Anticipation, the prospect of learning and creating something new brings JOY – this is THE prime motivator!

It is inspiring to see – but the opportunity to be immersed in nature should not be restricted to children whose parents can afford to pay school fees. I want state schools across the country to look at Holme Grange and think: ‘How can we do that?’ ………..All these changes – in science, geography and cooking – will help schools nurture happier, healthier children; in touch with, and closer to, the natural world around them. Michael Gove (Spectator February 27 2014)

Hidden Woods - A Poem by Hollie McNish - www.hiddenwoods.co.uk