Purpose

The purpose of a bush school is so that children can learn to manage risks, have more independence in guiding their own learning, to be active, experience nature and the outdoors in their own local setting, and to play and learn through direct experience within nature.

Background

Changes to the New Zealand School Curriculum mean for us, the responsibility to deliver a diverse education for a range of learning needs. The skills and dispositions required to be developed within schools are becoming increasingly broader and more complex:

• Collaboration to work jointly with others or together especially in an intellectual endeavor

• Communication the imparting or exchanging of information by speaking, writing, or using some other medium both verbally and non-verbally

• Creativity the use of imagination or original ideas to create something; inventiveness.

• Critical Thinking the intellectual process of actively and skillfully conceptualising, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information as a guide to belief and action

• Character the mental and moral qualities of an individual.

• Citizenship displaying good character, responsibility, honesty, good listening, kindness.

• Computational Thinking is a set of problem-solving methods that involve expressing problems and their solutions

• Resilience is the ability of an individual to adapt to change and stressful situations successfully, in a healthy and constructive manner.