Talk about an outdoor education!
No electricity, no running water and no classrooms. In fact, youngsters at Britain’s most unique pre-school never go indoors. JANE WARREN meets the inspirational headteacher – aged 87 – behind the establishment and wonders if it’s a model that should be rolled out UK-wide
IN THE outdoor play kitchen beneath an oak tree, Clementine and Harriet are busy making mud pies. They delight in stirring sand and scoops of soil with wooden spoons in old saucepans. “It’s raspberry biscuits,” declares two-yearold Clementine proudly. She’s dressed top-to-toe in red waterproofs and pink welly boots and her hands are delightfully grubby after a morning spent exploring fallen logs for baby woodlice.
This is Mark Beech Pre-school, one of the most innovative educational establishments in the country, where children aged two to four play outside all day long.
There’s no running water, no electricity and no classroom. Instead, the children gather for snack time inside a hand-built shepherd’s hut where a log burner keeps them warm while hot chocolate is whipped up on a paraffin stove.
“The children are outside 90 per cent of the time, come rain or snow,” explains Ann Roberts-Cleeve, who set up her school in the hamlet of Mark Beech, Kent, nearly 60 years ago. For the past few years, the school has been based in the beautiful gardens of her elegant period property where a wood chip pathway leads to a footbridge over a stream.
Here, youngsters are contentedly playing in the sunshine, surrounded by drifts of white wild garlic flowers. It is utterly idyllic. Since 1965, when she opened the school in the local village hall, countless generations of young children have benefitted from Ann’s unique approach and today it is more popular than ever. Even as she talks to the Daily Express, two more prospective parents call to put their children’s names on the waiting list.
“Children love being outdoors and it is hugely important to their emotional and physical development,” enthuses Ann, who was awarded an MBE for services to the community in 2006, but who has never before given a newspaper interview.
“When they are outside, they are able to express their curiosity – the building block of creativity and intelligence – in any way they wish.And the great joy is that they can have as much exercise and fresh air as they need. All children are facing danger all the time, but we teach our children to learn to manage risk.” After sowing sunflower seeds in pots, the children sit on tree trunks around a campfire and enjoy toasted marshmallows. Their behaviour is impeccable, because they are happy.
“Children leave here very wellprepared for their next step because it’s a natural environment that gives them what they need,” enthuses Ann. “They are like little sponges. They love to learn, and here they learn the ability to learn. It’s intuitive; it’s innate. All you have to provide are the right ingredients.”
And Ann’s experience tells her that those ingredients are fresh air, freedom and the stimulation of the natural world – not league tables, and standardised testing. “Don’t get me started on all that,” laughs the experienced octogenarian as we walk past a table on which she is rooting lilacs in jam jars. She’s about to show her tiny charges what happens if you leave woody plant cuttings in water.
“We used to run three days a week, now we are open for five, such is the demand,” she adds. It’s not hard to see why parents are clamouring for places. “They are outside playing, whatever the weather, digging in mud and sand, looking for bugs, and planting and growing,” says Charlie Jackson whose son Rocco, two, is a pupil. “He used to cry on the days he wasn’t at school, so now he comes here every day. The setting is unique, and Mrs R-C makes it so. Her teachers are lovely, kind, empathic people who have raised children themselves.”
With the help of her four experienced members of staff, Ann’s small pupils learn to recognise bird calls, plants and insects. A large tarpaulin can be opened up on rainy days to make a dry woodland classroom beneath. And the school’s “quiet room” is a delightful natural bivouac made from branches with an earthen floor.
When Ofsted first inspected the school in 2004, they asked Ann what qualifications she had. “I told them, ‘39 years’ experience’,” she recounts. “I’d had no training. I just went to school myself. Everything just evolved and everyone wants to come to me.”
The school was recently described as “Good” by Ofsted.
“‘Good’ is ideal, and I was very tickled to get it,” she says. “If you are labelled ‘Outstanding’ it piles on pressure, and it’s very hard to be given ‘Inadequate’. It’s hard to sum up a school in a single word and I hope they will change that.
“In education today there is too much bureaucracy. When I started out, I only had to prove that the neighbours wouldn’t complain. Beyond that, I want the children to be happy, to be social and to be able to give and take.The most creative time of their lives is between birth and three years old.
“They arrive with nothing, but here they quickly become confident.And not a year goes by when I don’t teach the child of a former pupil. The loveliest thing about it is the continuity.”
ANN has lived on the site of her school since 1959 when she bought the property with her first husband, Michael. Their eldest son was six weeks old and it was supposed to be a temporary move. Yet they’re still there, in part because Michael had a stroke at 47 and, for the next 30 years, Anne nursed him while also raising their sons.
“The school saved my life,” she explains. “It was so lovely to have this source of energy. It got my brain working and it gave me something else to think about. The house has been my base, but the school has been my sanctuary.”
And Ann, who has six grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren, and has been married for 12 years to second husband John, is in no doubt about the value of the work the school is doing.
“This is the most significant age for children. I always say to mothers: ‘You are doing the most important job in the world.You are building the future.’”