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.
Kahlo Residential: Day 1 at Ringsfield Hall
After our lovely visit to Berry Farm, it was time for us to arrive at our wonderful accommodation, Ringsfield Hall. Our beautiful home! The enormous house is surrounded by a sprawling garden(s), play areas, a billiards room, a small chapel, an art activity room, a...
Kahlo Residential: Day 1 at Berry Farm
Our Year 5 school journeys have got off to a GREAT start today with a very exciting first day for all in Kahlo class. After leaving London on our deluxe coach, we had an exciting (and travel sick free!) journey to Suffolk thanks to our driver, Tim. Sketching on the...
Hammers and Happa Zome
The Secret Garden was filled with the sound of hammering again this afternoon as Hokusai Class had their trn at creating Happa Zome leaf prints in Forest School. First we learnt about the different trees in the Secret Garden including Oak, Field Maple, Hazel, Hawthorn...
In the Hapa Zome Zone!
We had great fun in Forest school today creating leaf prints using the Japanese artistic technique of Hapa Zome (pronounced Hap-pa - zo-MAY). First, we learnt the names of the trees in the secret garden and played I-spy to test our knowledge. Then, we worked in pairs...
The Green Man
If you go into the Secret Garden, you will see strange faces staring at you from the trees... May day marks the ancient festival of the end of spring and beginning of summer. The ancient people of Britain believed that The Green Man, spirit of the trees, was the...
You’ve been Framed!
Year 3 had fun in Forest School this afternoon learning knots and working in teams to create frames out of sticks. It was hard getting the knots right but with resilience and teamwork we all were successful! When it was difficult, my team helped me, we worked together...
Forest School – Journey Sticks
This week in Forest School, Hokusai practised their team work skill with a team building game called 'Head Honcho'. The group had to copy the actions of a leader without them being caught by the detective. It took a lot of non-verbal communication and attention...
Spring has Sprung!
Hepworth class finally got the chance to experience their first Forest School session this week. After discussing the main rules of Forest School: look after ourselves, look after each other, look after nature, we played some team building games to improve our...
Year 3 Forest School
Forest school kicked off this term with Hokusai class! Forest school is intended to help with our mental health and wellbeing, build a stronger relationship with the nature around us and improve skills such as teamwork and resilience. We spent some time discussing how...
Leaf Art at Forest School
This week in Forest School, we were particularly interested in the autumn leaves all around us. There were such a beautiful range of shades and tones as well as the usual differences in shape and size. "There are so many leaves on the ground because it is autumn, you...