Local Well-being and Nature: making the connection

1
Local Well-being and Nature making the connection
2
WWF Living in Harmony with Nature
3
Interpreting local well-being

• Caring for others
• Caring for yourself
• Caring about your local area?
• Ofsteds well-being indicators
• ECM emotional health and well-being
• Please quickly discuss with a partner what your
  school does with regard to your pupils emotional
  health and well-being. 3 minutes

4
Nature Deficit Disorder

• We suffer as humans if we lack access to
  nature
• Children need access to nature in order to
  fully develop
• Nature is omitted from the curriculum in 2002
  a study found that British eight-year olds were
  better able to identify pokemon card characters
  than species native to their local area.
• Nature-contact develops childrens sense of
  confidence and teaches them to manage risk
• Nature-contact calms the hyperactive and
  improves the mental health of all children.

5
Some statistics could Richard Louv be right?

• 10 of all children have a mental disorder
  (national statistics, 2005) anxiety and
  depression are most common.
• Please discuss whether you think there is some
  relevance in Louvs theory for 5 minutes.

6
The eighth intelligence

• Howard Gardners multiple intelligences
• Linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial,
  musical, bodily-kinaesthetic, interpersonal,
  intrapersonal..and.naturalist intelligence.

7
More thoughts..

• We cannot have well humans on a sick planet Not
  only our physical being, but our souls, our
  minds, imagination and emotions depend on our
  immediate experience of the natural world.
  Thomas Berry
• In nature, you can just be. 7-year old

8
Activities you can do 1

• Go to a wood, or an area where there are
  different kinds of trees
• In small groups, blindfold one child and ask them
  to choose a tree and make friends with it they
  should touch it, smell it, feel its bark and
  leaves
• Move the child slightly away, turn them around a
  few times,
• Remove the blindfold and ask them to re-find
  their friend tree.

9
Activities you can do tree breathing

• Sit comfortably with your back to a tree
• Breathe deeply
• Think about inhaling oxygen and exhaling carbon
  dixoide
• Think about the tree inhaling carbon dioxide and
  exhaling oxygen
• Breathe, and focus on the fact that this is
  actually happening, its not just your imagination

10
Activities you can do sky watching

• Lie on the ground with a piece paper or
  cardboard, with a hole cut in it about 10 - 20 cm
  squared
• Watch the sky without speaking until you feel
  very calm indeed
• Best done either at night, or on a day with clouds