Author: Asti Kanaris

  • Lockdown: One Year On – Evie

    It’s been over a year since we closed our doors at Woodrow High House. A year since I set up my make-shift desk in my bedroom, and a year since my solar-powered calculator stopped working (I’ve since moved into the new realm of ‘digital’ calculators!). At that time, never did I imagine we’d be running […]

  • Lockdown: One Year On – Mark

    Spring has always been a positive part of the year for me. It’s the beginning of warmer weather, the clocks go back so the garden can be enjoyed more after a hard days work, and the plants and animals that have hunkered down for so long during the coldness, now start to wake up and […]

  • Lockdown: One Year On – Zack

    “I am Zack, a member of the youth board at London Youth. Nature as a whole has always had, and continues to have, a great impact on me. As you can imagine, I volunteer at a Surrey Docks Farm! One of the many disadvantages that the COVID-19 pandemic presented is that opportunities to go out […]

  • Back to Nature – Outdoor Classroom Day

    A few months ago, I wrote about Why Outdoor Learning Matters, reflecting on the importance and impact of high-quality outdoor learning experiences for children and young people. Since 1946, Woodrow High House has welcomed thousands of young people each year from schools and youth groups onto our site, with our busiest period peaking during the […]

  • Finding the Balance – Outdoor Classroom Day

    For the last few weeks, like many of us, I’ve been engaged in the challenging, head-spinning world of combining a working week with home-schooling our children. And I’ve learned a lot. It’s why that short opening paragraph contains a fronted adverbial, alliteration, metaphor, and an expanded noun phrase. Please go back and underline all the […]

  • #TwoPointSixChallenge: 26 Minutes Outdoors

    Did you know, being outdoors for just 15 minutes can have a positive impact on your mental health? So, as we’re currently taking part in the #TwoPointSixChallenge, I decided to spend 26 minutes outdoors for 2.6 days (okay, it was three). Nearly double the daily dose of feel good vibes can’t be bad for you, […]

  • Emma’s Swimming Tips – Part 3: Practice Makes Perfect

    Another important part of learning to swim involves your child being comfortable on their back with the water surrounding their head. Start helping them get familiar with this feeling by running a very shallow bath and have them lay back. You could even try putting your hand behind their head to give them extra security. […]

  • Emma’s Swimming Tips – Part 2: Building Confidence

    Another thing to practice is getting children confident with having water over their faces and their heads. Some ideas you can use in the bath are: Pouring water over different body parts. Playing a game such as Simon Says (or Mummy Says/Daddy Says/Big Sister says…) brings an element of fun to it – “Simon Says […]

  • Emma’s Swimming Tips – Part 1: Blowing Bubbles

      “Learning to blow bubbles is a vital skill which is useful for all levels, particularly when starting to swim unaided and when learning side breathing.” This break has been brought upon very suddenly and while I know we have lots of children who are missing their weekly lessons, hopefully with some of the activities […]

  • Remote Working 101 – The New Normal

      It’s week four of working from home, also known as the 64th March 2020… We’ve just run out of milk, meaning I’m having to resort to drinking black coffee, my solar powered calculator no longer works as it’s too dark in my “bedroom-come-office” workspace, and Alexa won’t even tell me a joke anymore, as […]