Mollys Guide - Spring 2018
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EDUCATION<br />
Benjamin Adlard Primary School<br />
outdoor learning key to school’s continued success...<br />
When head teacher Sam Coy took over<br />
the reins at Benjamin Adlard Primary<br />
School, it was struggling to say the least.<br />
Rated ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted inspectors in<br />
2014, it was not a job for the<br />
faint-hearted with improvements<br />
required across the board.<br />
Just a few years later however and<br />
the school has been transformed,<br />
now rated ‘good’ overall by the<br />
education regulators and with<br />
an added bit of outdoor adventure to help<br />
keep pupils stimulated and interested in their<br />
continued learning.<br />
An innovative on site ‘forest school’ classroom<br />
now allows children to thoroughly embrace the<br />
great outdoors, get some fresh air in their lungs<br />
and offers the perfect accompaniment to regular<br />
indoor activities.<br />
Mr Coy said pupils at the school in<br />
Gainsborough, near Lincoln, have really<br />
relished the chance to get outside a bit<br />
more.<br />
“I have been head for nearly three years<br />
now but when I took over the school was<br />
in special measures and was the 27th worst<br />
performing school in the county,” he said.<br />
“Some of our pupils come from very vulnerable<br />
backgrounds so we have added the forest<br />
school to help us nurture and develop our pupils<br />
into even more rounded people by providing<br />
them with a wealth of different experiences.<br />
“Our school motto is ‘creating a haven in which<br />
pupils flourish’ and we believe the forest area<br />
is another way for our children to develop and<br />
grow.”<br />
The transformed section of the school<br />
encompasses a large area of wild meadow,<br />
wildlife, grasses and trees, and although slap<br />
bang in the middle of an urban area to the southwest<br />
of Gainsborough, offers a true rural escape<br />
for pupils.<br />
Overlooking the town and miles of rolling<br />
Lincolnshire countryside, it enables outdoor<br />
14<br />
<strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2018</strong>