Nicola Price, teacher in charge of Forest School at Alleyn’s Junior School, talks about the benefits of unstructured play outdoors. As a child of the 70s I had the experience of ‘playing out’ with a group of neighbouring children. We spent days exploring, building, and experimenting – always working together and keeping an eye out for the younger ones. We made ramps for bike jumping, a proper raft to fish from, and climbed trees to imitate birds and experience a bird’s eye view. We would often be out all day without interruption or adult direction, only stopping for lunch. These days children can miss out on the benefits of active learning in the environment; time spent listening, looking closely, thinking, imagining, problem-solving, risk-taking, team work and perseverance. Forest School is doing much to bridge this gap for children, offering them time for child-led activities in the natural environment. Your children might have a Forest School session at their school or nursery but do not despair if they don’t. You can foster the resilient, confident, independent …

Stephen Hawking once said that ‘to confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit,’ and all must agree that there is little more mind-bogglingly wonderful than thinking about the scale, structure and order of the universe. So what better way of exciting our children about Science – and indeed perhaps even what it means to be human – than by introducing them to Astronomy? Here are some ideas on how we can encourage and feed curiosity: Birthday stars When we look into space we are looking back in time. While light travels very fast, given the scale of the universe, it can take many years for light to travel from stars to us. This means that there are stars that emitted the light we see today, in the year we were born! Use this site to find such a star Toilet paper solar system Even our modest solar system is huge with a scale that is difficult to imagine. And this is where toilet paper comes in. Using several rolls …