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Home | Prep | Curriculum | Values and Life Skills | Outdoor Education
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Outdoor Education

BLUE COAT GARDEN

Since the establishment of the Blue Coat School Garden in early 2014, our ability to allow children to experience outdoor learning has steadily increased. The garden has been a venue for many experiences, not least growing fruit and vegetables. Gardening has been a very popular Friday afternoon activity for our Year 5 and 6 pupils as part of their TED (Thinking, Exploring and Doing) programme and remains so.

FOREST SCHOOL

During the Lent Term of 2017, we embarked on developing a Forest School area adjacent to the new AstroTurf pitch, in a wooded area which was an ideal home for this new initiative.  The School has three qualified Forest School Leaders and offers outdoor experiences to both the children in Pre-Prep and Prep.  Our Buttons Nursery children has also had the opportunity to enjoy a teddy bears’ picnic in Forest School as well as to visit a live nativity there.

ETHOS

Outdoor Education is a new part of the Blue Coat curriculum and it is well described by the Forest School Ethos which states;

 “The ethos of Forest School is based on a fundamental respect for children and young people and for their capacity to instigate, test and maintain curiosity in the world around them. It believes in children’s right to play; the right to access the outdoors (and in particular a woodland environment); the right to access risk and the vibrant reality of the natural world; and the right to experience a healthy range of emotions, through all the challenges of social interaction, to build a resilience that will enable continued and creative engagement with their peers and their potential.” 

RESIDENTIAL TRIPS

Year 3 pupils enjoy their first school residential in the familiar setting of Forest School.  The children spend a day enjoying a range of outdoor activities including team games, a ‘night walk’, building bug hotels, making wild bunting and learning knife-skills and how to whittle a piece of wood before a sleepover in the Prep Houses.

In the later years between the ages of 8 and 11 years, the children venture further afield to Wales and Cheshire. There they spend a few days and nights and have the opportunity to ‘be at one’ with nature, to learn how to safely light a fire, receive wilderness first aid training and to have the chance to sleep under the stars.

WE LOVE THE OUTDOORS

Blue Coat has always been at the forefront of modern technology. It is our aim to provide the children with an understanding of and an appreciation for the simple, but vital technologies that are a part of everyday life and quite possibly overlooked in our busy urban environment.

The BCS garden and our forest provide our children with access to the outdoors. They give them the opportunities to explore and experience the natural world in a safe, familiar and easily accessible environment. They love these experiences!

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  • Nursery
    • Nursery Curriculum
  • Pre-Prep
    • The BCS Blue
    • Pre-Prep Curriculum
      • The Early Years
      • KS1 (Years 1 and 2)
  • Prep
    • The BCS Blue
    • Curriculum
      • Academic Languages
        • English
        • French
      • Academic Sciences
        • Maths
        • Science
        • Computing
      • Creative Arts
        • Art
        • Design Technology
      • Performing Arts
        • Music
      • Humanities
        • History
        • Geography
        • Religious Education
      • Sport
      • Values and Life Skills
        • BCS Values
        • PSHE
        • Outdoor Education
  • Admissions
    • Joining at Age 3
    • Joining at Age 7
    • Joining at Other Ages
    • Waiting Lists
    • Apply Now
    • Prospectus Request
    • Visiting Blue Coat
    • Fees
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  • School Life
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      • Future Term Dates
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Winnie the Pooh Day

21st January 2021

On Monday it was National Winnie The Pooh Day! It commemorates author A.A. Milne’s birthday in 1882. He brought the adorable, honey-loving bear to life in his stories, which also featured his son, Christopher Robin. BCS pupils celebrated by having a go at drawing this well loved character. They were given some top tips by Miss…

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Distance Learning Top Tips!

Thank you for the parent feedback on our BCS Live Distance Learning Programme. We were delighted by the feedback received and are pleased that the children are continuing to enjoy their lessons, albeit remotely. Mr Newman and Mrs Kavanagh-Finch have put together a few short videos which we hope will be useful to you in…

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Nursery’s Animal Fun

The Nursery children have had lots of fun learning about nocturnal animals.They looked at pictures of various nocturnal animals on Google images and watched some short video clips which promoted some lovely questions and discussion. The children particularly enjoyed sharing, acting out and talking about The Owl Babies story by Martin Waddell. They also created some super nocturnal animals of their own using various…

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Let’s Make A Story!

8th January 2021

Some fantastic news for Ismail in Year 4 who came 1st in Category B of the Ex Cathedra ‘Singing Medicine’ Story Competition. He was the overall winner of this writing competition and received some wonderful feedback from the judges. Rhian Ivory, one of the four judges commented, “I loved this poem and read it several…

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Thank You, Friends!

11th December 2020

On Sunday 6 December over 25 Blue Coat families gathered around their screens to battle it out in The Friends’ Christmas Quiz. With questions such as reindeer name anagrams, match the teacher to their pet and various Christmas trivia it was a close battle between the Jordans and the Longworths for first place. Coming down…

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Year 6 STEM Week

This week Year 6 developed their understanding of some of the issues facing the world through a study of the text ‘If the World Were a Village’.  The children were challenged to represent information from the text graphically.  They studied some of the problems facing survivors following natural disasters and discussed some of the ways…

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Christmas Assemblies

Year 6 Christmas Movie comes to Chapel!   We ended the term with a very special Prep Christmas service in Chapel, where the Year 6 nativity was premiered on a huge movie-style screen! Each year group came to see the film and were mesmerised by what they saw. Year 6 have been working hard throughout…

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A Celebration of STEM!

4th December 2020

What is STEM?  STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. These are all areas of learning that children need to be comfortable with to excel in the future.  STEM education is far more than just ‘lumping’ those subject titles together.  It’s a philosophy of education that embraces teaching skills in a way that resembles real…

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Into The Blue Podcast – Episode 1

27th November 2020

Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3… Hello and welcome to ‘Into the Blue’, a brand new podcast devised, produced and presented by our School leaders. The Podcast, launched today, is presented by Seb (Head Boy), Sarika (Head Girl), Sam (Deputy Head Boy) and Lucie (Deputy Head Girl), and gives them a focus and a voice in…

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Tune Up Tuesday

This week BCS was delighted to support KEHS with their national arts event for schools across the country.  Tuneup Tuesday was created to highlight the impact of the arts in the development and mental health of young people and to encourage young people to consider a career in the arts.  The project involved over 130…

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BLUE COAT PARENT

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GOOD SCHOOLS GUIDE

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