Reasons to Care Episode 18: Connecting to Nature - Alex Bradford
Shownotes - Episode 18
Connecting to Nature with Alex Bradford
Every child deserves the chance to embrace the outdoors in all its muddy glory, and our very own Bear Grills is the gateway to outdoor play.
Alex Bradford is our Outdoor Learning Lead at The Treehouse, and between his inspiration and joys of our Nature Nook, children of all abilities are able to use embrace nature-based learning!
From tool use and bushcraft, to imaginative play and team challenges, discover the opportunities that Alex creates to spark curiosity with every session.
This episode covers:
The transformative power of outdoor learning and nature-based activities for children of all abilities
Child-led, sensory-rich experiences that foster independence, creativity, and resilience
The inclusive-community that allows everyone to participate and thrive
Embracing sustainability through creative reuse of donated and local materials in educational settings
The value of diverse role models and teamwork in care
Our highlights from this episode…
“It all ties together with outdoor learning. We don’t necessarily run activity sessions. We run sessions with activities and lots of different things on offer, so people can jump between them as they want.” - 6:55 - Alex Bradford
“It’’s all about controlled risk and allowing children to fail, because if they don’t fail first, then they’ll just think it’s easy and they’ll brush past it without actually learning the skills.” - 11:35 - Alex Bradford
“It’s all very carefully done. It’s always a slow progress, but it means that they gain a respect for the tool, and then some of the older ones learn to maintain the tools after that as well.” - 14:40 - Alex Bradford
“It’s always fun when a child asks to do fire lighting, and then they struggle - which makes me sound very mean - and then they finally do manage to get it. They’re happy, and everybody cheers, which is really nice.” - 25:40 - Alex Bradford
“Loads of the plants and the seeds are donated by the local garden centre, and it’s brilliant, because it just means that everything comes from as locally as possible.” - 34:20 - Alex Bradford
“We always get excited when we get a male carer apply for a role. We’ve got a lot of young boys who, if you go to school, chances are there’s a high majority of female teachers and female carers. Actually, boys need to have other male role models.” - 38:40 - Clare Rochford
Links & references
Cat Abbott
https://www.linkedin.com/in/catabbott
Clare Rochford
https://www.linkedin.com/in/clare-rochford-65b9501b7/
Join the Diverse Abilities Team
https://diverseabilities.org.uk/careers
Diverse Abilities
https://diverseabilities.org.uk/