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Today there is a consultation day at Oswald Road Primary School in Chorlton. They are consulting on a new vision for the school, and looking at in detail a new vision for the school playground, which is mostly tarmac.
Pathways has supported two parents to design creative consultation tools with a focus on what children want more of. Do they want more hiding? More messy play? More climbing or swinging? More muddy play?
The consultation is running all day, so if you happen to be in Chorlton do go along and have a look at what they are doing. We can’t wait to hear the results of their consultation.
If you are in the Manchester area and need support on similar projects, please get in contact with us at hello@pathwaysconsultancy.co.uk.
This is how we like to celebrate as a team at Pathways – pick a stonkingly hot afternoon, set out some picnic rugs and parasols in May’s garden, chill some drinks, prepare juicy strawberries and lay out cupcakes from a fabulous local cafe.
We tied up bunting, set out the blankets and made up a few jam jars of flowers picked from the garden.
There were scrumptious cupcakes – including a special cherry bakewell cupcake – from And The Dish Ran Away With The Spoon in Disbury, which Charlie set out on vintage plates and decorated with herbs and feverfew from the garden.
We were joined by current and past team members, caught up on what everybody had been up to and what our current projects were, ate cupcakes and strawberries, finished with a tiny glass of bubbly and some facepainting from Isla and Mimi.
If you’re looking for an alternative work party or celebration, or want to have a team meeting with a different, do get in contact with us at hello@pathwaysconsultancy.co.uk or on 0161 273 8235 and we’d be more than delighted to discuss it with you.
Recently we organised a Forest Schools Seminar for a group of 40 people in Manchester – take a look at the short film we had made to find out more about what the day involved:
If you are interested in future Forest Schools events please subscribe to receive our website updates (you’ll see the ‘keep in touch’ button to the left) or send us an email at hello@pathwaysconsultancy.co.uk.
Recently we organised and ran a Forest Schools Seminar on behalf of Red Rose Forest. 40 participants joined us on a warm March day to find out more about forest schools through listening to speakers, taking part in workshops, and having a go at hands-on activities.
For our team, the morning started at 7.30am, unloading our cars that were full of large branches, bags of leaves, tablecloths, and a lot of mismatched vintage crockery.
In a little under two hours, we transformed the church hall:
Complete with woodland scene, including a twiggy den…
Everyone was greeted, signed in, and given lots of hot tea and coffee and pancakes.
Susannah Podmore, the Forestry Commission’s Forest Education Initiative Coordinator gave the opening keynote speech. She spoke about forest schools and education, what they are, why they work, and what’s going on nationally.
Next, everyone split up into different workshops led by experienced forest schools practitioners. Workshops covered delivering forest schools in public woodland, the benefits of woodlands as a learning environment, forest education in schools, and forest education for the under 5’s.
Whilst the workshops were going on, Steve and Charlie packed up their cars with a picnic lunch, and headed off to Wythenshawe Park to set up for lunch.
The grass was covered with a large groundsheet, laid over with blankets, onto which the delicious picnic lunch was spread out.
Scrumptious sandwiches packed carefully into baskets, and tins of Spanish tortilla, stuffed vine leaves, and grilled aubergine topped with mozzarella – all made by Backs Deli.
Our picnic spot was encircled with strings of pretty bunting – a lovely welcome for our guests as they wandered across the park to eat their lunch. And what beautiful warm weather we had!
The lovely Anna, who filmed our Spaceshaper Promotion Event in February was on hand to film the day – we can’t wait to see the final film when it’s finished!
The afternoon workshops were all hands-on forest school activities – a chance for people to try out forest education first hand!
There was a workshop on delivering the curriculum in a wood:
Another on den making:
Lighting fires and cooking outdoors:
And using ropes to tie knots and build bridges:
If you are interested in attending future Forest Schools workshops or events, or if you’d like help planning an event, please contact us at hello@pathwaysconsultancy.co.uk.
Whilst we update our website we will be sharing what we’re up to here – our shiny new blog. We’ve got some exciting new pieces of work coming up during the summer and some lovely pieces of recent work to share.
We are a social research organisation based in Manchester – please take a look round, read about the work we do, and follow us on Twitter.
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