Forest School Cardiff Cluster Group
Minutes from Meeting @ Llanishen Fach Primary 16th June 2015
Present; Chris Hewings, Iram Khan (St Paul’s), Meriel Jones (Bute Park), Chantelle Haughton (Cardiff Met), Tracey Taylor, Matthew Howells (Springwood), Emma Davies, Maxine Carter, Steve Gunning (Llanishen Fach), Jen (University of Wales, Trinity St Davids), Julie Burke (Guilford College, North Carolina, USA), Louise Roberts (Hywel Dda), Sheena (Natural Resources Wales)
Apologies; Liz Norman (Moorland) Sue Lane Llanedyrn)
*The Chair, Louise began the introductions and the group gave a short description of the role they play in their settings.
Sheena explained that this was her last meeting before her maternity leave and she would be handing over to Kathy for the next year. The group thanked her for her hard work and wished her well.
*The group had a tour of the extensive school grounds, including the log circle area, the sensory area, the vegetable plot, outdoor classrooms and the play areas. We spent over an hour exploring and hearing about the fantastic work going on in the outdoors at Llanishen Fach.
*`Treasurer’s report; There is £2079.25 in the bank. £500 is ring fenced for the skill day that was cancelled. £794.90 is project money which can be used to support individuals who want to attend courses. The money needs to be used as soon as possible. There is a Forest School Conference in Shrewsbury in October (23rd-25th). The cost is £175 all in members can claim £40 from the Forest School Association.
*Twilight sessions seem to be the most popular time for training. It was suggested that a storyteller could be booked for the autumn term. Chantelle can recommend a storyteller that she has used at university who is a lecturer in literacy and will liaise with Kathy. An inspirational course ‘The Wild Thing’ which explores relationships with the outdoors through language –Jay Griffiths was also suggested.
The Vale of Glamorgan run Numeracy in the Outdoors once a month and Chris Hewings said that this is something she would be interested in as the new LNF Curriculum is about to be introduced. Louise will contact the Vale.
The small grant will be used for Welsh resources as previously discussed. Jen (Trinity) has some resources/packs. She will email Meriel the contact details. The cost is approximately £50 per pack.
*Chris shared a new book with the group -‘The Gardening Pirates’ written by a local author. The book has been used to fit in with the beach/seaside topics at St Paul’s and has proved to be popular during ForestSchool sessions.
*Date and venue of next meeting; Hywel Dda, September 22nd.