3 Support to develop your pedagogy and care outdoors

NICOLA KEMP: So finally, the question that I'd like to ask is around the role of the Froebel Trust in supporting practitioners to develop their practice with babies and toddlers outdoors. So what can you offer in support?

SACHA POWELL: Lots of things, starting with a whole raft of free resources, which are all available on our website. So they vary from things like lovely pamphlets. This one is about observing. And of course, what I've just talked about is using observation to learn more about children, but also to perhaps learn more about ourselves in doing that observation to help support and extend babies’ and toddlers’ learning. There are other things like, and it's a bit more practical specifically for babies based on Froebel's very famous work around family songs.

So songs rhymes and finger plays is another pamphlet. And so there are a raft of those pamphlets, which are free. And we also have a DVD which is about treasure baskets. And although people might traditionally think that a treasure basket is something that you'd use inside with a baby or toddler. Of course, the outside world has wonderful resources, just things you'd find around. Sticks and stones and pine cones and leaves and all sorts that can become objects within a treasure basket, as well as perhaps bringing indoor objects outside to add to a treasure basket for a baby to explore and manipulate.

I think also we've got some fantastic research reports, your own included, Nicola, which give insights into what practitioners have been doing, what they think about what they've been doing, what they'd like to be doing. And so we've got empirical research findings from real world research in nurseries. And that can be read, and we've got recordings of conference and short webinar speeches about being outdoors with babies and toddlers, all of which can be seen for free.

We run courses, short courses, which can be accessed online or face-to-face in a setting. And then we also offer grants for colleagues working with young children, including babies and toddlers who might want to explore their own practice or develop their own practice or do research. So there's a variety of things that I think the Trust can do and we're always open to ideas. So we love it when people contact us and say, have you thought about such and such. Welcome interaction and feedback from people who engage with us too.