Blackburn's latest Forest School unveiled after £10,000 lottery grant

A patch of unused land at St Mary and St Joseph’s RC Primary School has been transformed into an outdoor adventure and learning area thanks to the help of the grant money and the Lancashire Wildlife Trust team at Brockholes Nature Reserve.

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Pupils at the Bennington Street school are set to use the Forest School in all of their subjects once they get back from the half term break.

The idea is that the outdoor area will be used throughout the curriculum, in lessons such as maths and art, to further learning.

It is also designed to help give youngsters in urban areas the chance to spend more time in green spaces outside.

Assistant headteacher Simon Addy said: “We have a lot of help from the Lancashire Wildlife Trust and they have been fantastic in getting the project to this stage.

“It’s something that we have been looking at doing for quite a while but it’s nice to have it finally finished and opened.

“We were very lucky to get the funding from the lottery and the money has been well spent to help the kids with their learning.

“The school is going to try and use the new facility as much as possible.

“It’s so important to try and introduce children to new ways of learning and it’s also a great chance to allow them to spend more and more time outside.

“The whole idea behind Forest Schools is inspired by the Scandinavian approach to learning, which involves a lot of the outdoors, and people like Bear Grills.”

Vicki McDermott, senior project officer at Brockholes, said: “Forest Schools are popular in other areas of the country but are still relatively new in the North West.

“They have been increasing in number however recently and it’s great that we have been able to work with the school to get this one set up in Blackburn.

“The idea behind them is to get more youngsters outside because of all of the benefits that that brings as well as bringing a new angle to learning which hopefully the children will engage with.”