Wild Monkton
Our Wild Monkton initiative is designed to help shape the future of our pupils by engaging them in the benefits of learning and adventure outdoors.
First introduced in 2019, since then we have embraced the opportunities that being situated on the edge of a UNESCO World Heritage Site and in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty allows us to offer our pupils.
Research shows that time spent outdoors has cognitive gains for pupils and increases their levels of motivation and achievement. It increases skills such as problem solving, critical thinking, decision-making, creativity and concentration.
There are many other improved health and wellbeing aspects - time outdoors can help reduce stress hormones, restore attention, reduce obesity, improve life satisfaction and lift low mood.
Lastly, we want to instil in our young people a desire to care for our world - developing young adults who consciously take action to protect the environment. Engaging with nature and the outdoors in practical ways develops this in a way that merely learning about it in class does not.
We want our pupils to:
- Thrive - improving wellbeing in our students through exposure to the outdoor environment
- Learn - increasing knowledge and understanding of our natural setting and improving life skills
- Conserve - stewarding the Monkton estate to enhance the landscape, habitats and biodiversity
- Share - being generous in allowing others to benefit from our setting and skills
Our pupils live out these objectives through these 4 areas: