Woodland Blog
21/05/26: National Outdoor Learning Day at High Ashurst
Thursday 21st May marked National Outdoor Learning Day, and to celebrate we were delighted to deliver two Woodland Orchestra sessions at Surrey Outdoor Learning and Development’s High Ashurst Outdoor Education Centre. Pupils from Ravenscote Junior School and Fern Hill Primary School joined us for a day of outdoor music-making, creativity, and exploration in the woodland setting.
Throughout the sessions, the children worked together to create instruments from found natural materials gathered from the environment around them. Using sticks, leaves, stones, bark, and other woodland textures, they experimented with rhythm, sound, and composition before recording their own original musical pieces outdoors. The activities encouraged creativity, listening, teamwork, and a deeper connection with the natural world, and a great time was had by everyone who took part.
We were delighted to receive wonderful feedback from staff attending the sessions. Mr Robinson from Ravenscote Junior School said: “Thank you very much for the woodland music session, the children and adults enjoyed it very much and we will be incorporating it into our own outdoor learning.” It was fantastic to hear how inspired both pupils and teachers were by the experience.
We were also privileged to welcome Rob Fairbanks and members of his team from Surrey Hills National Landscape, who came to observe our afternoon session with the Year 3 pupils from Fern Hill Primary School. It was a wonderful opportunity to share the project and make new connections around creative outdoor learning in Surrey.
One of the highlights of the day was an original piece of music created by the Year 3 children from Fern Hill Primary School using sounds recorded outdoors in nature. The students explored the woodland environment to build their own instruments from found natural materials, while also sampling environmental sounds and their own voices to create a unique collaborative composition. The finished track has now been shared on the Woodland Orchestra SoundCloud page as a celebration of the children’s creativity and the inspiring sounds of the natural world.
24/04/26: Beyond the Classroom – Outdoor Music CPD at High Ashurst
On Friday 24th April, I had the pleasure of delivering CPD training for teachers at Surrey Outdoor Learning and Development’s High Ashurst Outdoor Learning Centre as part of their annual Outdoor Learning Conference, Beyond the Classroom.
SOLD invited me to lead a music session focused on creating outdoor soundscapes and exploring how music can become a meaningful part of outdoor learning. Too often, outdoor education focuses on physical activity or environmental studies, while music is left indoors. This session aimed to show teachers how simple, creative music-making can happen naturally outside using the tools children already know and enjoy.
Across two sessions, 20 teachers took part in a hands-on Woodland Orchestra experience. We used iPads to capture the natural sounds of the environment, birdsong, wind through the trees, footsteps on woodland paths, and the textures of the outdoors. Alongside this, we built simple instruments from found natural materials and introduced a traditional instrument, the ukulele, to bring rhythm, melody, and structure to the final performance.
The sessions culminated in a collaborative recording of Roar by Katy Perry, combining natural sounds, handmade instruments, and ukuleles to create our own woodland orchestra version of the song. It was great fun and a brilliant example of how music outdoors can be accessible, engaging, and memorable.
Importantly, the training was designed so that no musical background or specialist knowledge was needed. The goal was to give teachers as many practical ideas as possible that they could take straight back to school. Each session could easily be broken into three standalone activities: outdoor sound recording to create sound collages, building natural instruments to explore rhythm, or using traditional instruments like ukuleles outside. We combined all three to show how powerful the full experience can be.
Outdoor music learning has huge benefits for creativity, wellbeing, listening skills, and confidence. It was fantastic to share these ideas with teachers and help demonstrate that music absolutely belongs beyond the classroom.