Having provided an early years educational setting in Humberston for over fifteen years we decided to offer a similar experience within a deprived area and so we developed Grant Thorold Forest School in the East Marsh of Grimsby. Since opening in April 2019 we have become an integral part of the community having already provided education and care for over 150 children and very proudly acquired an Outstanding status from Ofsted in June 2021.
Along with our usual Forest School based activities such as cooking on a fire, handling tools during wood work sessions and spending most of our day outdoors, we also provide mindfulness moments to relieve anxieties and encourage relaxation in the children’s often busy and chaotic world.
This year our aim is to further develop an interest within our children and their families in STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and maths). As children are naturally curious and often think like scientists, by providing a play based curriculum, supportive adults and thought provoking resources we aim to further cultivate creativity and critical thinking, reasoning, problem solving and language and communication skills. By discussing not just the typical careers within our local community, but those further afield, we hope to raise the aspirations of our children which is key in the deprived area in which we work and also to encourage our girls to develop an interest in these subjects and roles.
Through the Business Hive we hope to link up with industries within the world of STEM and create valuable partnerships which will encourage and develop our young children into the engineers, computer programmers, microbiologists and architects of the future.
