DESCRIPTION

The Garden Classroom is a charity connecting children, families and community to nature. We have won two national awards from the Forestry Commission for our tree education programmes, and in 2012 our founder Marnie Rose, was named Best Learning Outside the Classroom Innovator at the Awards for Outstanding Contribution to Learning Outside the Classroom. We spoke at the Outdoor Recreation Network conference in Edinburgh in March 2020 and believe that the future of education is through outdoor learning. Our charity has been doing this for 12 years and we are poised to continue. Nature’s classroom can lead us out of lockdown. Our base is Islington, the borough with the least amount of green space (after the City of London) we have a service level agreement with the London Borough of Islington, we use local green spaces and parks to teach curriculum linked learning, urban forest school and open our apiaries to teach about the wonderful world of bees. We also take urban children to our countryside classroom in Kent. We have brilliant residentials on a hop farm, teaching children to climb trees, cook on a camp fire and enjoy the benefits of nature connection. In response to our community we are have launched ‘green’ events, experiences and courses on everything from forest bathing to forest school, meditation to botany drawing, bee workshops, foraging walks, nature poetry, tree walks and plant identification. Lockdown has really proved the importance of nature connection to our health and well-being. Our incredible team are here to support the community to benefit from outdoor learning.