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  • The end of the cotton wool era?

    Saturday 30 July 2011

    Categories: Education, Health, Personal Safety

    There’s a nursery school in Liverpool where children spend all day playing, learning and having fun in six acres of land. They climb trees, build dens and go pond dipping. They eat outside, nap outside and learn outside whatever the weather. They slide down mudhills, getting wet and dirty, and then warm themselves by the fire pit. It’s called Sandfield Natural Play Centre. Initially some parents were nervous but now they are seeing how their children have become more confident, how their imaginations are being stretched and how happy they are, and are delighted by their progress. Of course schools should and do take their responsibility for caring for children very seriously but the current blame culture has stifled them. Now it seems, after decades of timidity and fear of being sued, some schools are encouraging children to explore their wider environment, to get muddy and wet, by reintroducing more adventurous outdoor play.

    Outdoor “forest” schools have long been part of the Scandinavian curriculum. Even in their much harsher climate children play outdoors for long periods of their school day and their educational standards are to be envied. I think it is very good news that some British schools are also now going back to nature. Like most parents I remember making camps and mud pies, building snowmen and swinging from tree branches. Of course we fell, scraped our knees and got messy but didn’t we have fun?

    Educationalists know that children thrive when they are gently and gradually exposed to risks which they then learn to assess and manage. Our current risk-averse culture is in danger of smothering our daughters in cotton wool, limiting their experiences, their discoveries and even their horizons. Surely we want our girls to be confident, adventurous, bold and brave? I hope many more schools, with the encouragement of parents, follow this wonderful example of creativity and common sense – let our children grow and flourish and throw away the cotton wool.

    Posted by Alison Morris

Your comments

Children need to make decisions for themselves, to find out the way the world works. They need to take risks and learn to assess risk for themselves. If we tell them to put their coats on because we are cold, or not jump off the step in case they fall, will they ever choose a career, buy that killer pair of heels or go on an adventure? If we came through okay climbing trees and running fast why do we think they can’t?

By rhona64 on Monday 1 August 2011

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