inwoods

Tess had her 3rd day (including her trial day last term) at Inwoods Small School today. She is really enjoying going there, although is not yet ready to stay on her own (but Brodie and I really enjoy it there too, and the sun always seem to shine at Inwoods, so we're not complaining at the moment!!!!). It's a bit hard to do justice to the place with a camera phone and trying to avoid including other people's children, but these pics will give you an idea ......

Looking across to the Big Barn, where whole school activities, cooking and the older children's lessons & activities take place. [The school divides the children into 3 groups for lessons and activities, based roughly around age. The day starts with everyone meeting together for a sort of assembly, then there is usually an activity within the specific groups. Playtimes, lunches etc are all taken at the same time, and the children play across age ranges, rather than just sticking to their own groups. The group divisions are less important on Fridays, which are less structured than the rest of the week, but the younger children - up to about 7 - generally do several activities together in the Small Barn during the day]. Lunch & snacks are eaten at the tables under the gazebo........

The Small Barn, where the younger children's group activities take place ......

Looking from the back field area towards the house (this is accommodation for the main Brockwood School to which Inwoods is affiliated; Inwoods is based in the grounds of the house). The Small Barn is behind the building on the right, and in the distance, between the two buildings, you can see the huge oak tree that dominates the garden area between the Big Barn and the Small Barn. Underneath the oak tree, there is a wonderful area with log piles, made into a dragon, with a carved head, and stump stepping stones. Tess & Brodie spend most of the playtimes in this area, but just as I was about to take a photo of it, empty at the end of the day, some children came along and started playing on it, so I will have to try again next time ....

Looking the other way, towards the tree house ....

....... and ladder and swing (behind the tree, you can just see the edge of another area, a grassy field, which is used for sports and games, and which has a 'secret' pathway to another natural area at the far end) ......

The children made a clay bread oven a few years ago, and over the summer, the school has built a beautiful shelter for it, to make it easier to use and to provide a nice seating area. This is being finished at the moment, and also there has been quite a bit of other work in the garden over the summer (hence the pile of earth on the left hand side), including demolishing a building that was unusable, in order to ultimately build another classroom area for the school ......

Inside the Small Barn ......

One of the youngest group's activities today was to make paper. The children gathered different natural items from the school grounds to add colour and texture to their paper. As they collected items, they grouped them by colour .........

Tess's paper (top middle). She chose the white bowl, which included some clusters of tiny white flowers from a shrub and some small white flowers growing wild. The paper came out a creamy colour, with lots of flecks in it. It was very beautiful .....

The group is also doing cooking this term, and helped to make lunch. Today, they made cheesy bread snails! Last week, they made pizza, and Tess's was an adventurous mushroom & olive one! She really enjoys the cooking and has been paired with a different boy each week, so it has been useful for her to make new friends. Obviously she has yet to be brave enough to taste the fruits of her labour!

The group also did dance and movement. Brodie jumped up and joined in when they played a traffic lights game - as this involved running as fast as you can on the spot every time the leader called out 'green'!