Pen Green Centre for children and their families

🌿 Outdoor Learning Network

Taking Time to BE and Learn Outdoors

The Outdoor Learning Network offers a welcoming space for early years professionals to engage in discussion, reflection, and shared practice focused on high-quality outdoor provision for young children.

This network supports professional dialogue and the ongoing development of effective, thoughtful outdoor learning experiences. Together, we will explore how outdoor spaces can nurture wellbeing, curiosity, and deep engagement in children’s learning.

The network is co-facilitated by Menna Godfrey, Director at Outdoors Thinking. Menna is an experienced trainer and consultant who has worked with childminders, PVI and maintained settings to develop their vision for, and use of, outdoor spaces.

🌱 Focus of this session

This session in the network series will explore:

• Outdoor play and enabling environments

• Resourcefulness and thoughtful use of space

• Ways of slowing down to better see what children are researching and wondering about

• How unhurried approaches support wellbeing and learning for both children and adults

Drawing on experiences from a range of early years contexts, the session will be valuable whether you are beginning to develop your outdoor provision or looking to deepen and enrich existing practice.

Throughout my career in Early Years, I have been fascinated by the way children are drawn to be outdoors. It is often where they appear most relaxed, focused, and able to engage deeply in their enquiries. To begin our network conversations, we will consider how taking time — and resisting hurry — allows us to truly notice children’s questions and interests in the spaces they occupy.

📅 Event details

Thursday 5th March
6:00–7:00pm

Join colleagues who are passionate about outdoor learning and creating meaningful, responsive outdoor experiences for young children. I am delighted to be hosting this Outdoor Learning Network meeting and very much looking forward to our shared conversations.

Until we meet, I hope you will be able to ‘go slowly’ in your outdoor (and indoor) spaces. 🌿