Herm students take lessons outdoors
HERM SCHOOL took part in Empty Classroom Day last week, joining thousands of children across the world in celebrating the benefits of working outdoors.
Empty Classroom Day is part of a global campaign, backed by Persil, to make the school day more fun and get children back to nature.
The Herm children are lucky enough to be able to use the entire island as their playground and often take activities outside anyway.
Nature walks, tree planting, art in the woods and drama out on the hills and fields have been part of the Herm School curriculum for years.
This was the first time they have spent the entire day outside and luckily the weather was good enough not to ruin their fun.
The five children in school that day, Brandon Hastings, Emy Hastings, Harry Moore, Ethan Dyer and Oscar Nicholls, threw themselves whole-heartedly into the activities.
On the beach, they learned how to build teepees, then used the things they found on the sand – shells, stones, seaweed – to make storytelling pictures.
They used sticks and stones on the grass to study maths – spirals, triangles, bar charts and the fibonacci sequence.
The island's common makes a natural amphitheatre, perfect for performing Shakespeare.
To end a busy day, the children took a trip to the Mermaid for a hard-earned ice cream.
