Nature School

Nature is one of our greatest teachers and there is no better place for children to truly experience that than through the Nature School at Glenlyon Norfolk School.

Led by our Outdoor Canada Play award-winning teachers, Nature School at GNS is a program designed to integrate children with their natural world and engage them in quality outdoor learning that stimulates their curiosity and imagination. Our unstructured style of play allows children to interact meaningfully with their surroundings. They can think more freely, design their own activities, and approach the world in innovative ways. Participating in Nature School also activates their physical senses as they are encouraged to see, hear, smell, and touch their outdoor environment.

But Nature School does not end when our students enter their indoor classroom. Treasures such as pine cones and acorns, shells, sea glass, or feathers that are collected outside are brought into the classroom and used for hands-on exploration and to stimulate young imaginations. They can even be used as counting tools or to create art.

Like all learning at the Beach, Nature School is implemented within the framework of the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme. Our outdoor explorations provide unique opportunities for our students to investigate patterns, life cycles, their senses, science, math, art, music and the stewardship of our planet guided by the transdisciplinary themes that inform our daily inquiries.

When children are immersed in nature, they learn to fall in love with, care for and protect it.