Last week we had a ‘Mufti Day’ which coincided with Outdoor Classroom Day. The School came alive with children in bright rainbow colours, and all enjoying a crisp autumn day. The sun shone upon us as every year group enjoyed being outside in our grounds with a range of activities. 

The Year 8 boarding boys got the ball rolling early as they headed out into the New Forest for a ‘dawn walk’. The moon was brilliant and the stars were out in full force with the boys using the stargazing app on their phones to enhance the experience and learn as much as possible. (We are truly blessed to have such little light pollution that we often see the stars.)

As the normal school day began, all the children heartily threw themselves into Maths or French scavenger hunts, others were making rainbow coloured cookies, tackling ‘Tough Mudder’ style assault courses, whittled around a campfire, created eye catching flags and, in Year 6’s case ‘being physical’, art inspired by Jackson Pollock… and a whole heap of games! 

It was a mere suggestion by me that the mufti day in support of the NHS tied up with a nationwide ‘Outdoor Classroom Day’, and the entire staff body gobbled up the idea and put on a wonderful day for the children so my thanks to everyone involved. In a year where nothing is quite normal, it was so nice to hear the children having such fun in our wonderful grounds and learning new skills…even if they didn’t fully realise they were still learning! 

Written by: Mr Humphreys