Our indoor & outdoor spaces
Wildwood is quite different from a traditional school. Our children spend half of their time learning and playing in our indoor base and the other half of their time in green spaces around us, each offering different opportunities for learning, exploration and connection with nature.
From our cosy indoor base to wild outdoor spaces, each place we use offers something different. Find out more about each of them below.
Take a look around our indoor base…
Our bespoke-designed indoor space at St. Mary Brookfield Hall in Dartmouth Park NW5 doesn’t look like a regular school. There are no walls separating classrooms and no rows of desks. Instead, it’s an open, flexible space where children can move freely and choose how they work and play.
The space has been carefully designed with children’s well-being in mind. Light, sound and the arrangement of the space have all been thoughtfully considered to create a calm, cosy, comfortable environment that feels good to be in. There are different areas for different needs — spaces to work together and collaborate, as well as quieter corners for reading, drawing or taking some time out.
We have continuous provision, with books, toys, creative materials and resources available for all children - up to Year 6 - to access throughout the day. Children might work at a table, curl up on a beanbag with a book, build something on the floor or find a comfortable spot to think. It’s a space that gives children room to move, choices about where and how they learn, and the freedom to make the environment work for them.
Old Orchard Garden
We spend the whole day on Tuesdays at a beautiful enclosed space on Hampstead Heath near Kenwood - The Old Orchard Garden - that’s not open to the public. It’s a magical site where we can have a fire burning all day, go pond dipping in an incredible pond full of life, play games, do woodwork and where the children can freely explore hidden areas including a willow maze.
Even though we go out to a green space for a half day on the other school days, having a whole day in nature every week gives children the time and space to slow down, find a sense of peace and experience a different pace of learning. There’s more freedom to move, explore, follow their curiosity and simply be outdoors, without the same boundaries and expectations of an indoor environment.
Hampstead Heath
Wildwood is very lucky to be one of the few schools in London with a licence from the Corporation of London to use certain areas of Hampstead Heath for Forest School. The Heath is a phenomenal pocket of green space in the middle of one of the world’s biggest cities – and our children get to explore it several times every week.
We visit different areas of the Heath depending on our plans for the day and what the children need. They know the area so well that they’ve given their own names to certain places and trees – including “Double-Tree Hill” and the “Climbing Tree” – and have built up a wonderful sense of familiarity and belonging there.
The children understand that precious green spaces like the Heath need to be cared for and protected. Forest School helps them develop a real sense of responsibility for the natural world, and we actively look for opportunities to work alongside conservation groups and contribute to the care of the places we love to explore.
Enjoying some mindfulness on the Heath
Lots of space for big, active games
St. Anne’s Church
St. Anne’s church, just round the corner from school, have very kindly allowed us to use the outdoor space on the side of the church for Forest School activities. Our younger children visit here one afternoon a week. It’s perfect for cooking over the fire, doing tool work, and one of our children’s favourite activities - mud play! Whether that’s digging, creating rivers of water or serving delicious mud ‘food’, Wildwood children love getting their hands muddy.
It’s also a great site for children to learn about looking after nature. The children regularly help with cutting back brambles and weeds, and we’re developing a vegetable and flower growing project there too.
