We have been extremely lucky to be in partnership with Skylark Adventures who provide outdoor learning experiences to students who may be highly vulnerable. 5 of our high SEN students from KS3 have been working with Lizzy who is the Skylark activity leader and instructor, Adrian an external mentor and Jake our TA. They have so far experienced sessions in our Forest school, moving onto more exciting adventures away from the school grounds in coming weeks. Jake said “past what a television screen can provide, the natural world was as alien to me as I’m sure it was to the students. Experiencing first-hand the sense of amazement and awe Skylark instilled into the children over these two days so far, was wonderful to see.

One student remarked at a fire being lit from foraged twigs and bark (that they collected themselves) as “magical”, and it was exactly that, students were engrossed in the day that was indeed, magical”. We have had an abundance of positive feedback from our students as well as for our students. Lizzy, mentioned the sessions went really well, with lots of engagement from all the students.

George's and Mohamed's concentration was superb. Richard was excellent helping out other students, explaining to them how he had success with the fire steels. Isabella worked well took on more challenges without high levels of support and Modibo's recall from last week’s skills was incredible! I would also like to take this opportunity to say a big well done to Jake as the feedback has been superb. To quote Adrian “Jake has gotten completely involved from the offset with the programme (supporting the instructor) and his calm positive manner has helped built a good rapport with all of the students involved”. Many more exciting adventures to come and stories to follow – watch this space!