Supporting Cultural Connection and Belonging at Aberfoyle Park High School

The nature-based outdoor learning environment offers a unique opportunity for educators to encourage the stretching process in children and help them realise their full potential. When outdoor learning environments are places that allow inspiration and creativity to take root, for curiosity and spontaneity to be realised and importantly, for risk and failures to be viewed as positive learning experiences, children will be the beneficiaries. This learning can help them develop the life skills and awareness they need to be confident, resilient and able-bodied adults who take responsibility for themselves and their actions.

This guide provides simple and inspiring garden advice for people living in the city of Adelaide, its northern plains, foothills and southern suburbs. Water-wise local native plants are attractive replacements for introduced plants that are harmful to our local landscapes.

Green Adelaide also offer a range of resources for teachers, information on gardens, samphires, native grass and more.

• Native Plants of the Adelaide Plains
• Common Urban Birds ID chart

• All Green Adelaide Teacher Resources

Each region, including Green Adelaide, has a Grassroots Grants program, funded by levies collected within each region and from state funding for boards that have no or low levy revenue.

The grants support not-for-profit community-based organisations, volunteer groups and individuals to run local projects that help care for our soil, water and biodiversity.

These Why Sheets, inspired by the work of Alfie Kohn, are research-supported documents designed for educators to share with families about the importance and benefits of nature play. We understand how busy educators are, so these information sheets have been created to help them easily communicate the value of nature play and outdoor learning.

The Why Sheets can be downloaded to support:

• Why Nature Play?
• Why Risky Play?
• Why Sensory Play?
• Why Barefoot and All Weather Play?

Conversations about rules and outdoor environments led students at Hallett Cove South Primary School to transform their play and learning spaces. Over several years, students became experts in play, risk, and place-making. Immersed in experiential learning, they became researchers; designers; and made meaningful real-world decisions with adults about every aspect of project management. The results were stunning. Not in terms of beauty, but functionality and impact.

Students breathed new life into barren, neglected spaces on a shoestring budget of a few thousand dollars, using mostly donated resources like logs and stone and some recycled “street treasure”.

A Nature Play SA-designed native plant identification sheet, inspired by Green Adelaide resources, explores the symbiosis of native plants and the creatures they support.

Consider making connections with local community groups to help guide your project:

• The Forktree Project focusing on re-establishing native vegetation, attracting native wildlife
• Birds In Backyards Nest Box Plans
• FauNature Wildlife Boxes

“Learn about the Kaurna Miyurna culture through the endemic species lens. This is the Kaurna Food & Fibre unit of work. This program aligns brilliantly with the Year 5 & 6 Science and HASS curriculum. It also provides an opportunity to explore the cross-curricular priority areas of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures and Sustainability through an authentic and locally relevant context.”

This resource was created by St Joseph’s School with support from AAEE and Green Adelaide.

50 Words: This project from the Research Unit for Indigenous Language aims to provide fifty words in Indigenous languages of Australia The map is intended to be a useful resource for schools and educational organisations to learn 50 words in their local languages, and for the general public to discover the diversity of languages around Australia.

How can you assess connection to nature? Researchers and evaluators have developed numerous tools to measure connections to nature, including surveys, observational strategies, and interview guides.

The Areas of Impact: Observational Story (Ob Story) aims to record how the Department for Education’s Areas of Impact (AOI) may be engaged in nature play settings. The AOI are four domains that support children to learn in holistic and supportive environments:

• Wellbeing
• Effective Learners
• Learner Agency
• Equity and Excellence

The Ob Story has been developed for use by Nature Play SA in their work with site schools and kindergartens. It is also designed for possible future use by teachers and educators, and teaching teams at kindergartens and primary schools. The tool invites education professionals to record an observation of nature play. The Ob Story asks for curriculum links, detailed observation, social play types, considers the child’s perspective, and encourages reflective practice from the observer. There are two versions of the Ob Story that align with the Australian frameworks and curriculums used in South Australian public education: The Australian Curriculum V.9, and the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) V2.0.

Areas of Impact: Observational Story for the Australian Curriculum Version 9

Areas of Impact: Observational Story for Early Years Learning Framework Version 2.0