Our world changes rapidly and presents new and complex dangers to which children must adapt. However, the basic concerns of life remain the same: how will we find solutions to the problems of survival?
The Bushcraft program at Moorfield School covers a variety of traditional survival skills and techniques such as fire lighting, shelter construction, water purification, foraging and tree and plant lore. But it also encompasses a wide variety of science and creative art topics, such as flora and fauna identification, traditional crafts and technology projects. We also bring literacy into the woods, with poems and stories chosen especially to connect the listener with the environment.
Survival means different things to different people and in different contexts but no matter what challenging situation in which we find ourselves, there are universal traits and attitudes that need to be employed if we are to succeed and survive. Positivity, tenacity, good humour, humility and cooperation are primary attributes in almost all areas of life, but which can be forgotten in stressful or demanding situations.
In Bushcraft, children learn how to solve problems by utilising the resources and materials they find to hand, and engaging with the natural environment to improvise solutions. They learn that the people around them present, in their character and conduct, the best resources, and that cooperating with their peers is the surest means of overcoming obstacles.
By encouraging children to play in, and engage with, the environment (no matter how messy, unfamiliar or uncomfortable that may be), they discover how quickly and easily their fears can be faced and overcome, and that as a team, strength is found in collective experience.
Above all, the aim of Bushcraft is to equip children with the tools to discover and explore the world that exists just beyond their back gardens.