Children are always welcome at the CS Lewis Community Nature Reserve, stresses BBOWT’s Mark Bradfield

In the 20th century Oxford’s renowned authors Lewis Carroll, CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien drew on the amazing creatures and plants of the natural world to fire up children’s imaginations.

So it’s no surprise that children today love to visit the CS Lewis Community Nature Reserve, where the Narnia tales were created.

Each week, children from Bayard’s Hill Primary School in Barton scamper into the nature reserve off Kiln Lane in Headington, to run along the paths and begin their own outdoor adventures.

This is a Forest School, set up by Clair Pavely, a foundation-stage teacher at the school. “Being able to take the children out to CS Lewis Community Nature Reserve has been a revelation,” she said. “I have been amazed with the transformation in one child in particular, who seems to become a different child when he’s outdoors. Usually he’s quite withdrawn and quiet, but out on the nature reserve he becomes much more talkative and confident, even to the point of leading other children in role play games. I was blown away by the change in him!” said Clair.

Being in the outdoor environment removes the boundaries and restrictions of classroom walls. It allows the children to lead their own play in an exciting environment, and this helps to develop independent learners with increased self-esteem. In the last decade or so, Forest Schools have become a popular way of encouraging children to explore, learn how to take risks that are reasonable, and discover that using their curiosity and imagination gives them confidence.

Children who play outside regularly are willing to try anything and everything, working out how to build a den, use sticks and mud to make toys and tell stories, and eat toast grilled on a fire.

It’s a sad and worrying statistic that fewer than 10 per cent of children play in natural places such as woodland and countryside compared to 40 per cent of adults when they were young (Report of Natural England on Children and Nature, March 2009) and many parents are concerned about their children spending so much time indoors playing on screens.

Forest Schools are one way to help children learn to play outdoors, appreciating nature and enjoying the freedom of being outside, with its sense of peace and space.

It’s so important that children get outside and have fun in the great outdoors. When I was a boy I had freedom to explore the countryside, and tried to catch sticklebacks in a ditch close to where I lived. That fired up a lifelong interest in wildlife and appreciation of the world around me, and led me to the work I do now as Community Wildlife Officer for Oxfordshire.

This gives me the chance to work with local schools and groups to encourage more children to have rewarding experiences. The CS Lewis Community Nature Reserve has always been a popular place for children and families to discover wildlife on their doorstep. The woods are alive with birds as anyone entering the reserve will notice when they are greeted by the calls and songs of robin, great tit, chaffinch and wood pigeon.

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If you’re lucky you might catch a glimpse of the blue flash of a kingfisher, which occasionally hunts the ponds for the many sticklebacks that live there.

In a few weeks’ time the surface of the water in the main pond will be quivering with frogs looking for a mating partner. The children will love coming down here to listen to the frogs croaking, and then spot the clumps of frog spawn and wriggling mass of tadpoles.

Community Nature Reserves are special places where the Wildlife Trust works alongside and with local community groups to create and manage places that are not only a refuge for wildlife but also act as a green haven for everyone to enjoy.

To find out how you can make the most of Oxford’s nature reserves, including organising Forest School visits, contact Mark Bradfield: 01865 775476/markbradfield@bbowt.org.uk