Holdfast Beach & Forest School

In 2018 I opened a beach-based outdoor playgroup. We ran, fully-booked and busy, throughout the seasons, for five beautiful years. Amongst many things, here are 5 things I have learnt:

🌊 Any outdoor education requires regularity and consistency. True nature connection is built slowly and over time.

🌊 Look for learning opportunities in your own immediate environment. I started the Beach School because we live somewhere with very little woodland. Think outside the ‘Forest School’ box. Use what you have.

🌊 Human issues and nature issues are wholly interconnected. Embrace this. Do not be afraid to talk about what is really going on around you.

🌊 All play is valid and all matters. Many children need a bridge between their indoor and outdoor worlds. Provide what they actually need for purposeful play, not what you think will look good on the ‘gram.

🌊 Community is everything. True I intergenerational spaces are rare, let’s build more of them.

Anything else you think we should add?

(This photo is five years old. It fills my heart with joy that two of the children in the photo where also at our last session. Still on the beach, still playing together. That’s what it is all about 💙 )

We love rockpooling 🦀

We’ve been lucky enough to have been exploring the rockpools on this part of the East Kent Coast for 5 years now. We’ve met shrimps and small fish. We’ve uncovered a whole world of crabs lurking under clumps of seaweed. We’ve found molluscs, barnacles and sea anemones. We’ve even been lucky enough to see some tiny starfish. Our Beach School has loved spending time in this secret world.

Here in North West Europe, we’re lucky that, if you can get to the coast, rockpools or tidal pools are relatively accessible and safe for us to explore. All you need is a tide timetable and some patience. If you’d love to rockpooling this summer, and I have put everything we have learnt in to a downloadable PDF guide. You can find it in my Etsy shop via the link in my bio. Happy rockpooling

Cyanotypes are one of the oldest photographic printing processes in the history of photography. Also known as sun prints, cyanotypes are relatively easy to create as they don’t require a dark room and just utilise UV rays from the sun and iron salt solutions.

They’ve become a bit of a yearly tradition at our Beach School, when the clouds clear and the Solstice Sun is high in the sky. Patiently capturing the image of beach treasures in shades of blue.

Our preferred brand of cyanotype paper is the Lawrence Hall Sunprint, but lots are available. Also check out the cyanotype work our East Coast sister & artist .

Have you ever made any sunprints? 🌞

Rockpooling in your Princess dress? Welcome to the Summer Term of Under 5s Beach School 👌🏻

“May, more than any other month of the year, wants us to feel most alive.” - Fennel Hudson

There are some rather big changes afoot at Beach School HQ, which means this account has been a little neglected of late. However, I’m determined to blow the dust off and share a bit more going forwards.

Posting just to break the posting rut ⛵️

Amazing beach art & photo by the irreplaceable

One place (for a child and their accompanying adult) has become available for this term’s Beach School.

Get the full details here: https://bookwhen.com/holdfastbeachschool

See you on the beach 💙

We’re getting ready to set sail ⛵️ Strengthening those all important social skills by creating a place where children can lead their activities and support each other.

Our Under 5s Beach School reopens for the Spring term this week. We’re fully booked but we hope you will enjoy following our adventures here 💙

“Sometimes it seems as if children’s whole lives are one long improvement project. Nothing is done just because it’s fun.” - Naomi Fisher

When I first started doing this work, I would carefully link everything we were doing to learning outcomes: “this is good for fine motor skills development, this is a great precursor to mathematics...” You know the drill. I felt it was necessary to constantly prove what learning was happening, I felt it that’s what added value to my work.

Five years on from starting the Beach School project, I am much more accepting that play is enough and having fun is essential. Facilitating places for play and fun exploration is important work. Especially in a world where we are all increasingly measured and analysed that we need spaces that are just for fun. Nowadays I take a lot more pride in facilitating these kind of places. It’s not always easy, it’s taking a lot of work to remove the outcomes mindset that is deeply set in our culture, but fun is so necessary for all ages. And fun really is enough.

A new newsletter containing our top tips for rockpooling, if you are heading to the coast for the holidays 🦀
https://holdfastbeachschool.substack.com/p/the-secret-world-of-the-intertidal?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

I’ve moved our email newsletter to Substack. Please head over to find out what we have learnt from our Winter Beach School sessions: https://open.substack.com/pub/holdfastbeachschool/p/lessons-from-winter-beach-school?r=18nl2q&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post

Easter Holidays session 🐣

Come and join us at St Margaret’s Bay for some beach exploration, seasonal crafts, open-ended play and inspirational stories. Find the full details at www.bookwhen.com/holdfastbeachschool or follow the link in the bio.

For adventurous Under 10s and their adults. We’d love you to come and join us! Pre-booking is essential. See you on the beach 💙