Outdoor Education at Bore Place

by Bore Place

Perhaps now more than ever, outdoor education has become hugely important for our Schools as so many missed out last year. Bore Place is the ideal way to re-connect and get back outside, could you give our readers an overview of Bore Place?

Bore Place is a 500 acre organic estate which encompasses a dairy farm, with an organic herd of approx. 250 cows, an organic market garden growing vegetables and salads from March to Nov and other areas to explore including woodlands, ponds and meadows. We are working towards being carbon neutral and at the moment we generate 50% of the energy we use on-site via a wind turbine, PV panels and a biomass boiler. We offer a fantastic venue to get your pupils outdoors learning about the countryside, and finding out about food, farming and the environment.

You have a huge range of activities and you have been busy creating even more. What new activities are on offer?

We have recently devised a new day activity designed to reconnect kids who have spent so long outside the classroom. The focus is very much on wellbeing and teambuilding activities with the day designed to be fun with a sense of achievement gained from completing tasks as a team. Activities include survival challenges, orienteering and campfire cooking.

There are numerous advantages to outdoors education that are particularly important at the moment. What are some of the benefits of your new team building days for both teachers and pupils?

We really believe in the value of getting kids outdoors and giving them the opportunity to connect with nature for their wellbeing and for positive mental health. The new team building days have received some fantastic feedback. The benefits are that kids spend the whole day fully engaged - there is no time queuing for a go on something - all the kids are working together and learning how to work as a team and they are outside, getting the opportunity to connect with the outdoors. Some of the challenges we set are quite stretching but the kids get a real sense of achievement from completing them.

Some of the other biggest advantages of outdoor education is mental health and wellbeing. How does a visit to Bore Place help with this?

It's fantastic that the benefits of being outside and connecting with nature are getting as much recognition as they are right now. Outdoor education and the benefits of nature to mental health are at the heart of our ethos. Being a 500-acre estate we offer a site where kids can experience a real sense of freedom. There is vast space to explore and to run wild. Children don't need to worry about disturbing other people. Although we are very close to the M25 and London, the estate has a real sense of serenity that many people feel is quite special. There is no noise from traffic and it is very hard not to notice the sounds of nature through birdsong at certain times of the year. Being an organic estate, we are blessed with fantastic wildlife including great crested newts, a big bat population, badgers, hares, deer and a variety of birds. Visitors get to experience this as well as seeing what life on a farm is like. We really believe that this connection with nature is priceless for good mental health and believe that a visit to Bore Place can nourish children and nurture an interest in the environment and the benefits of being outside engaging with nature.