Children love to play and learn outdoors. Farleigh Pre-Prep is fortunate to have its own, well-developed woods which are regularly visited for fun, play and learning opportunities. The Pre-Prep wild woods enable the children to benefit from being outside, sometimes with structured learning activities, at other times to play and learn to take risks within a safe environment.

All the children in Pre-Prep - from Kindergarten up to Year 2 - regularly take time in this wonderful Pre-Prep woodland, close to Pre-Prep. In addition, for one term of the academic year, each year group from Reception to Year 2 spends an afternoon with focused Wild Woods activities. We aim to teach the children to work as a team, developing co-operative skills through finding and identifying risks together or building a den in a group. The children solve problems and learn to enjoy the outdoors as a learning environment. Kindergarten spend at least one morning a week in the Pre-Prep woods throughout the school year.

The confidence the children develop in their woodland learning sets them up well to continue their Forest School journey in the Prep School with the Prep woods too.

Often classes link their outdoor learning to their class topic or a specific aspect of the curriculum: for example, Reception children have been on a Gruffalo hunt and made mud pies for the Gruffalo; Year 1 children made homes for a hedgehog as part of their topic on Houses and Homes; and Year 2 made flags to identify the boundaries of the learning area to link in with their work on Castles.

The children love their visits to the Pre-Prep woods. Bundled up in warm clothes, boots and coats they spend a happy time exploring, playing, learning, sometimes cooking or enjoying a well deserved cup of hot chocolate, made on the camp fire in the middle of our woods, underneath the huge parachute shelter, sat on logs and watching the visitors to the Bug Hotel. Time spent outdoors helps indoor learning, friendships and skill development in more ways than can be imagined and is a precious part of our weekly timetable in Pre-Prep.