Southland’s First Bush School Growing In Popularity
- The programme focuses on bushcraft, survival, communication, conflict resolution, and resilience.
- Sponsorship helps overcome financial barriers for families to access the programme.
An Invercargill couple’s outdoor learning programmes have been so successful that after 18 months, Southland schools are now choosing their programmes to support the learning of their students.
Katie and Gareth Oliver started ‘True in Nature’ last year to offer children of all ages outdoor learning experiences such as bush craft and survival, as well as learning essential life skills such as effective communication, conflict resolution, self responsibility and resilience.
Both former physical education and health teachers who also home educate their five children (all boys), their ‘bush school’ is tailored to 7 to 12-year-olds who are often disengaged learners or challenged by mainstream education.
“Being in nature is so calming for the nervous system,” she said which contributes significantly to the success of children who attend the programmes.
“Our passion is the longer term programmes. We have had such success stories with some children. Especially with those children who attend one day a week for 6-8 weeks during term time,” she said.
As well as the positive benefits of being in nature, the couple do not use reward and punishment to manage behaviour and instead use Non Violent Communication (NVC) to support students through emotional upset, conflicts and challenges.
“We don’t see ‘bad’ behaviour, instead we see a child who has unacknowledged feelings and unmet needs that are struggling to communicate this.’ Katie said that most of the time the kids are so engaged and happy that behaviour management was rarely needed anyway.
“It feels very fulfilling and purposeful. It really opens your heart when you know you have made a difference to a child and their family.”
Six Northern Southland Schools will be integrating True in Nature’s programmes to support students with low attendance, their well being, life skills and leadership.
As well as moving further afield with their in school term programmes, their popular holiday programmes are also growing.
A new all natural arts and crafts programme has been added into the mix alongside their bush craft holiday programmes for 5-16year olds. Based in Invercargill they now travel to Gore and Otautau during the holidays.
For some families, financial barriers restrict access to these impactful outdoor learning programmes. Regal Floors of Invercargill strongly believe in Gareth and Katie’s purpose and have sponsored a couple of children to attend their programmes, with life changing outcomes.
So too have Road Runner Panel and Paint who have supplied gas stoves and cookers so that children can cook their own lunches each day.
Because True in Nature is a business, funding was not easy to come by, so the couple appreciated any sponsorship they could get to help families in need and subsidise places.
They will look at extending the programme to 16-year-olds for the first time too shortly, but as well as financial barriers, there is still a few challenges of negotiating the traditional model of schooling.
“Some principals are not supportive of parents taking their children out of school.”
Katie said that would change over time, as more educators and families begin to understand the benefits of learning outside the classroom – particularly for the children that this traditional model doesn’t suit.
“Some children thrive with their hands and imagination. It’s important that they can be in an environment without pressure and they have autonomy over their learning so their potential can be unlocked.”
Check out trueinnature.com to learn more about Bush School and Bush Playgroup