Outdoor learning
At Lansbury Lawrence, we are incredibly lucky to have extensive outdoor grounds. The main school building was designed with large accessible spaces on either side. We take huge pride in these areas, and over the years have landscaped them to maximise areas for play while also having natural areas to support habitats and maintain mature growth. Some of our trees were planted by royalty! We have a wide range of fruit trees, and our raspberry bushes are popular with the children when the fruit is ripe. Our ‘secret garden’ is home to chickens, and a small pond area too.
In 2018, we were awarded the Tower Hamlets in Bloom ‘Best Newcomer’ award, in recognition of our grounds. The following year, 2019, we went on to win the ‘Best Educational Establishment’ award.
Edible Playground
In 2018, the mayor of Tower Hamlets, John Biggs, officially opened our Edible Playground in one of our playgrounds. The Edible Playgound was designed and built by the charity ‘Trees for Cities’. We have a large area of raised beds, where we grow and harvest fruit and vegetables. Every child within the school has a timetabled half term to work with Joe, our school gardener, to learn about growing food through the seasons. We run family gardening sessions during school holidays, to continue the planting and harvesting cycle all year round. Have a look at the films we made with Trees for Cities below, for some planting top tips.
Eco Committee
Our Eco Committee is made up of children from across the school, who care about our environment. In 2019, they confidently spoke about how we have improved our energy usage, waste and biodiversity at Lansbury Lawrence, to an assessor as part of our Eco Schools progress. As a result of this, we were the first school in Tower Hamlets to receive the Eco Schools Green Flag Award. We are so incredibly proud of everyone at Lansbury Lawrence for all of their work making our environment a better place.
Forest School
We believe Forest School supports children to become healthy, resilient, creative and independent learners, while nurturing understanding and respect for our environment. Every child in the school has timetabled Forest School sessions. These sessions are currently led by Ms Boglietti, a trained Forest School practitioner. As part of our continued professional development programme for teachers, we have also trained Ms King (Early Years lead teacher) as a Forest School practitioner, as part of our on-going commitment to outdoor teaching and learning.
Forest School Fire Starters
We had a fantastic afternoon with fire in Forest School this week. We learnt how to stay safe and about the Fire triangle. Then we practised building fire stacks with the largest pieces of wood at the bottom and smallest pieces at the top. Ms Burren helped us to try...
Delaunay class’ trip to the Soane Centre
Delaunay class are buzzing from their trip to the Soane Centre where they attended a workshop on Living things and their Habitats. Pupils used magnifying glasses to observe some mini beasts and plants closely to understand how they are suited to live in their habitat....
Collecting firewood…
This week in forest school, we spent a cold, drizzly afternoon.....collecting sticks! It might sound strange but we actually had a lot of fun searching for the right size and thickness in preparation for next week when we will be using them to make fire! It was...
Get digging.
Children from Hokusai Class had a great time yesterday in Forest School planting bulbs ready for spring. We noticed that they looked a lot like onions and could see that the shoot would grow out the top. Practising our safe tool use, we dug the holes carefully with...
Gimme Shelter
A new group joined Forest School this week and fun exploring the areas and using their senses. We went on a sensory walk and heard tweeting birds, crunching leaves, felt smooth rocks and spikey twigs, we even found some cold, wet, slimy worms to hold! After that, we...
Sensory Forest School
This week in Forest School, we were so lucky with the weather! It was a beautiful afternoon and we were exploring with our senses. First we went on a sensory walk to see what we could hear, smell, see and feel - there were lots of crunching leaves, smooth bark and...
Old Leaves and New Beginnings.
Today was the first day of Year 3's Forest School sessions! We had a great time exploring the Secret Garden, noticing our surroundings and collecting the autumn leaves around us. Using leaf identification sheets, we tried to work out which trees the leaves had fallen...
A Fun Autumn in Peggy Angus
By Nurun and Akram This week in history we created our double page spread. We did the double page spread all about the Poplar Rates Rebellion and the key figures Minnie Lansbury ,Susan Lawrence and George Lansbury. After we completed our double page spread our parents...
Making friends in Early Years
In Carle class this week, all of our children have been making friends with each other and exploring the environment with curiosity. Enjoying some Bark Breakfast in the Mud Kitchen Zahir & Mohammed began building a structure out of the blocks - part castle, part...
Look at us! Hamilton class play and learn whilst developing their fine motor skills.
Why are fine motor skills important? Fine motor skills involve small muscles working with the brain and nervous system to control movements in areas such as the hands, fingers, lips, tongue and eyes. Developing fine motor skills helps children do things like...