Outdoor Classroom Stories: Wooragee Primary School, VIC

3rd October 2019

Wooragee Primary School is a small rural school located in North East Victoria. There are currently 37 students enrolled at the school from Foundation to Year 6.

At Wooragee Primary School we currently have a Stephanie Alexander Kitchen and Garden program which the students utilise each week to grow, harvest, cook and share together. We have also recently opened our Nature Reserve as a new Nature Playground space, named Yirrikama, from the local Indigenous Dhudhuroa language, which means to across or on the other side of and for us it is our creek. The students use this space to learn about their environment and form a greater connection to nature. The space is used as an outdoor classroom as well as a play space. The students undertake creative writing lessons, mathematics and science in the space.

Outdoor Classroom Day is a day to celebrate the joy that being outdoors brings to our lives and the learning that can occur through play and exploration. Being outside in nature is an opportunity for students to take risks and develop their problem solving abilities as well as build their resilience, teamwork and creativity skills which are vital for being the future care takers of this Land.

For Outdoor Classroom Day 2018, the students took part in a range of activities in the Nature Playground. Some of the activities they did were orienteering, using clues to look for the letters that make up the name Yirrikama. They also did yoga and became River Detectives where they did experiments to discover the quality of the water in our creek. Finally, the students also had some play time to explore and experience nature.

The students are given time in our nature playground or in the garden twice a week. The students do gardening and STEM on a Friday outdoors.

Students have shown they are more likely to engage in the learning when it applied to real life situations and where they can see the link to their everyday life.

Some shy students have shown they are more eager to join and play with other students in free play that they wouldn’t normally have shown an interest in.

Students have shown an increased ability to show resilience and confidence in taking risks as well as being able to problem solve independently and as a team, when in the nature playground, such as jumping over the creek or walking across a log.

We are hoping to utilise the Yirrikama (the nature playground) in the future for a lot more lessons such as art, writing and mathematics as well as a free play space during lunch and recess.

The Outdoor Classroom Day Team would like to thank Wooragee Primary School for sharing their story with us.

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