The garden and forest school

Whitchurch has a wood on its doorstep. Forest Farm is a nature reserve along the canal a mile from the door, and since 2016 the Oaks have gone there twice a week, in the rain, in the frost, and in the one week in July when it is too hot for the garden. The garden does the other three days, and the babies and twos, who are not yet ready for a wood, get it every day.

The garden runs the length of the house: a covered deck by the back door for the rain, a mud kitchen with real pans and a tap, a willow den planted in 2014 that is now taller than the staff, a digging patch, a sand pit with a lid, a bike track round the lawn, and the vegetable beds along the fence. The babies have their own gated corner with a grass bank and the low swing; the twos and Oaks share the rest on a rota so that the twos have it to themselves for an hour each morning. Waterproof all-in-ones and wellies in every size hang in the porch, bought by the nursery, so no child misses the garden because the wrong coat came in.

Forest school is Tuesdays and Thursdays for the Oaks, from 9:45 until lunch, in groups of twelve with Dafydd and two other staff, at Forest Farm nature reserve, a ten-minute minibus ride. The site is a cleared ring in the beech wood with a tarpaulin shelter, a log circle and a fire square. The children build dens, climb the low beech, use real tools under one-to-one supervision (a bow saw from four, a peeler and a palm drill from three), cook on the fire about once a month, and learn the names of what grows there. It is not a walk in the woods: it is a programme, written half a term at a time, and the children lead it.

The risks are managed the way forest school is meant to manage them. Dafydd holds the Level 3 Forest School Leader award and outdoor first aid, every site visit has a written risk assessment reviewed on the day, the fire has a rule of two adults and a kneeling circle, tools come out one at a time and go back in the box, and a child who is not ready to listen that day stays by the shelter with a member of staff and the magnifying glasses. Nobody has gone home with anything worse than a splinter and a lot of mud.

The babies go out every fine morning in the four-seater pram along the Taff Trail from Whitchurch to Melingriffith and back, and the twos walk to Whitchurch Common on the rope once a week in summer. Parents sometimes ask whether all this outside is really necessary. The children who have had it arrive at school able to climb, carry, wait and get muddy without minding, and the staff think that is worth a lot of washing.

What is included

• The garden every day, in all weathers, with nursery waterproofs and wellies in every size
• Forest school at Forest Farm on Tuesdays and Thursdays for the Oaks, from 9:45 to lunch
• A Level 3 forest school leader and outdoor first aid, risk assessments reviewed on the day
• Real tools from three under one-to-one supervision; the fire about once a month
• The babies' pram walk along the Taff Trail; the twos on the rope to Whitchurch Common
• Vegetable beds the Oaks grow for Maureen's kitchen

What it costs

Forest school, the minibus, the waterproofs and the wellies are all included in the Oaks day fee of £60. The fees page has every rate side by side and a calculator for your days with the 30-hours offer applied; the day page has the routine and this week's menu.