Every school has a yard. Very few schools have a forest. Castle Park has eleven acres of mature grounds, an outdoor amphitheatre classroom with a stone teaching wall and a forest circle shaded by hundred-year-old trees. We don’t value these spaces because they look good in photographs – although they do. We value them because the research on outdoor and nature-based learning is, at this point, overwhelming.
What the research says
Children who learn regularly in outdoor environments show measurably better concentration, reduced anxiety, stronger working memory and greater willingness to take intellectual risks. They are less reactive, more collaborative, and more capable of sustained attention when they return to the classroom. None of this is particularly contested among developmental researchers – it is simply not reflected in how most schools are built or run.
What it looks like here
Forest School at Castle Park is not a once-a-term event. It is a regular, planned part of how our pupils learn – particularly in the junior years. Pupils work in our outdoor classroom for science, writing, mathematics and wellbeing sessions. The space changes how they carry themselves. Something about being outside, in a real environment with real textures and real weather, seems to give children permission to think more freely.
Our forest circle – a natural gathering space under the tree canopy – is where some of our most important conversations happen. About how we treat each other. About what is hard and what is worth trying. About what it means to be part of a community.
A question worth asking
When you visit a school, it is worth asking: where do children go when they are not in a classroom? What does their physical environment communicate about what the school values? At Castle Park, we think that question has a very clear answer.
Book a visit and see for yourself or read more about our Forest School and Science.