adventure fridays
Adventure Fridays
Our Adventure Fridays are a more extreme version of our usual sessions; we start each day tending our allotment and nature garden, grounding ourselves often setting off on bigger adventures around the local area: hiking through village pathways and fields, tackling new experiences and terrains. Children are taught to be aware of their surroundings and its inhabitants, learning safe road crossing and meeting people from the local community. We may walk down the road to Tracy’s woods or explore further afield, wherever we go children have the opportunity to try new skills, use tools and learn to explore deeper into nature. The children face more challenges, pushing the boundaries of their learning, challenge themselves and build the confidence and resilience needed for their next steps in life.
Due to insurance and the complexity of some of the activities, children must be a minimum of 3 years old to participate and the the top cohort. Children also need to be emotionally and physically able to cope with these all day sessions as well as able to follow instructions to ensure they are safe on the road and beyond the boundaries of preschool.
To ensure that the children can fully enjoy Adventure Fridays, and to ensure their personal safety, we must stress the importance of having the correct clothing, a substantial lunch, an understanding of the conditions within the woods and the expectations we have of the children.
All children must be competently toilet trained for this day and able to manage their own care.
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Places on Adventure Fridays are granted at the managers’ discretion. All children must be ready and able to cope with the more extreme full day session in order to grant them a space. There are no fences in the woods so all children must adhere to the boundaries we set. We expect the children to have respect for the environment, for each other and the staff. They must have good awareness of road safety and be able to follow instructions and understand that to keep themselves and other’s safe from harm they must do what is asked of them on the first request. Children can, as long as it has been agreed with a manager, start at the beginning of any of the three terms: autumn, spring or summer of their final year before the would be in school. Fridays cannot be chosen as a single all day session, they must be done in tandem with a minimum of one other full day and a half day (3 sessions).
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• fire pit -fire lighting, cooking and fire talk
• tool use - potato peelers, hammers, bow saws, knives, secateurs and tree loppers
• rambling and hiking in the local area (including road safety)
• tree climbing, swinging
• den building
• allotment work in the community allotment
• crafts
• nature id and hedgerow medicine
Children will not be using tools until they are ready in every way; emotionally and physically. They are taught safety rules including tool and fire safety which are reinforced regularly. All our staff are first aid trained as well as having outdoor first aid. Risk assessments are performed frequently due to differing environments and weather conditions and staff keep each other and the children informed of potential hazards so that everyone learns how to safely manage risks.
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A small backpack - this must fit inside it:
• full set of spare clothes
• filled water bottle
• appropriate packed lunch
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• must be hearty and filling for a full day outside moving around
• should not contain any sweets or chocolate bars
• each food item should be packed separately ideally in small tubs, this way if the lunch gets dropped, not everything will be ruined
• no hot food on a Friday please as this has more chance of being dropped, is often too heavy to carry and requires cutlery which can sometimes be forgotten or lost
• no yoghurt please as they often burst in bags
• no nuts please
Just like on the other days at preschool, the right clothing is essential - please ensure you read and comply with our Clothing and footwear policy.
Adventure Friday agreement
All parents are expected to read, understand, sign and therefore abide by, our Adventure Friday agreement. This explains how your child must be prepared for each session to ensure their safety.
There is an increased day rate for non funded hours, for those claiming this session through funded hours there is an increased rate for the Education, Health and Wellbeing Package this allows us to provide a higher ratio of staff and various activities much of which is offsite.
Please be aware that this session is only for the cohort due in school the following academic year and are for the full day, 9-3, only. Places on Adventure Friday are granted at the discretion of the managers, please let your key worker know if you wish your child to be considered for a place. If you have signed your child up to join Adventure Fridays from when they first start with us please be aware that they will need to settle first, which usually takes 2-3 weeks before they can then join us for a Friday session. We hold termly Adventure Friday meetings, to give parents an understanding of what to expect.
Mar 25