Scotts Park Primary School

“The walk was fantastic and opened my eyes to outdoor learning opportunities for the whole school.”                                                          

The Green Chain

The South East London Green Chain was created in 1977 by the four London Boroughs of Bexley, Bromley, Greenwich and Lewisham and the Greater London Council. In 2008 Southwark also joined the partnership and today there is a 50-mile network of 300 open spaces which include parks, woodlands, fields, lakes, rivers and wonderful views!

TARU Arts’ Schools Outreach

The project aims to promote the Green Chain as a resource to schools and teachers and to engage school children in fun and creative activities in their green and local outdoor environments.

Projects with TARU Arts and the Green Chain are excellent learning opportunities and provide many benefits to children and young people.

Our Projects

TARU Arts has been commissioned for the past two years by the Green Chain to run arts and environmental projects with local schools and so far we have worked with schools in five different boroughs.

Our programme of workshops and sessions include an introductory assembly and games, site visits with activities, workshops of music, dance and costume making within the school and a final parade performed for the school assembly as well as in the park or through the local streets.

1. •     Getting children out to explore is one of the best   
   

       ways to engage them with the world around them.

1. •     Well-planned programmes and field trips enhance
   

       and further knowledge and understanding.

1. •     The sense of achievement and confidence children
   

       can discover in different learning environments can

       have a beneficial effect on their overall learning and

       development.

1. •     Many children, particularly those who struggle in the
   

       classroom setting, respond well to the kind of hands-

       on learning they can experience in the outdoor  

       classroom.

Our projects also provide a platform and starting point for schools and teachers to utilise the Green Chain’s Resource Directory, an accessible web-based guide detailing activities relevant to particular areas of the curriculum.

The site visits are a rich experience for the participants and involve a diverse range of activities to engage the children including exploring and gathering, sensory mapping and drawing, games, storytelling and singing with actions. The final visit to the Green Chain area involves everyone’s favourite activity – an outdoor treasure hunt! The treasure hunt is created using the children’s maps from the previous site visit and participants are rewarded with seeds to take home to nurture and watch them grow, a lovely reminder of the green outdoors.

The final parade is an opportunity for the children to promote their green local spaces, either within their school or in a procession on their way to the park. It is a spectacular and exciting end to a multifaceted project.