CHILDREN at a Bishopstone nursery will soon be leafing through their books in a new classroom after an ambitious project to enhance their learning experience moved a step closer.

Hillsborough Day Nursery is planning to unearth a forest school within its own grounds as part of an initiative by The Great Western Community Forest.

Nursery staff, children and their parents laid matting and edging logs to mark out a series of pathways through the forest and later filled them in with tons of wood chippings to make the pathways complete.

All the volunteers were then rewarded for their hard work with a picnic at the end of the day.

"The concept of the forest school fits in perfectly with our ethos, which is to bring children up in a natural, non-institutionalised way," said Susan Lowry, co-founder of the nursery.

"Everyone worked really hard, but it has all been worth it the results are fantastic."

Savernake Forest and Swindon Rangers have been instrumental in helping to get the forest school up and running after providing the edging logs for the pathways, while Hayley Saw Mill donated the wood chippings.

The forest school is designed to encourage learning through contact with the environment.

Forest schools originated in Sweden in the 1950s when a retired soldier started to teach youngsters about the natural environment through songs, stories and practical hands-on experiences.

The experience is fun and child led as the children splash about in puddles, roll in the leaves and because of the high adult-to-child ratios, children can safely try activities that are often prohibited, such as climbing trees or lighting fires.

Ideally children should attend forest school sessions weekly and throughout the year, therefore experiencing all weathers and the changing seasons.

The programme is designed to allow the youngsters to grow in confidence, independence and discover their own abilities.

But Hillsborough Day Nursery's forest school is just one of a number of environmental projects that have been introduced over the last few years.

"A few months ago we completed a mammoth task to plant around 400 ash, oak and elder trees, which had been donated by the environmental charity BTCV," added Mrs Lowry.

Last year the nursery celebrated its 10th birthday and built upon its already solid environmental roots by starting an organic vegetable project.

The scheme, which was a joint decision by all the staff at the nursery, is aimed at giving children a grounding in gardening, while at the same time promoting healthy eating.