CPD - for architects, Councils, schools and sports organisations 
training in, about and for health and well-being through playful natural environments

Book your training day to learn how to :
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* balance risk and benefit
* the importance of natural play
* how risky play supports whole child development
* manage and make the most of your school grounds, parks and playgrounds

Parks managers, play managers, school managers hear the latest research, share their experience, network and enjoy a great training day

​Building resilience is one of the most effective ways to improve social and educational outcomes. We will show you how natural play, risky play and school grounds designed and managed for that purpose build that resilience.

We offer full and part day training workshops to schools, parks managers, play managers, architects and community groups. Enviro schools training, environmental education, ESD workshops for staff and students, CPD workshops for teachers, classroom assistants, senior management, and governors are covered in training workshops tailored to your needs.

Please contact us to discuss your needs, from a one-hour presentation to full day workshops

CPD is an important part of any profession. Enviro-schools programmes require knowledgeable staff and students. Improving performance against relevant targets means Sustainable and Environmental Education teachers and students need to be confident outdoors. Education outside the classroom brings the curriculum (and staff and students!) to life.

Greenstone Design are experts in environmental education; in particular the collaborative visioning, design, use and development of outdoor learning environments. Service learning and systems thinking require us to make connections in a meaningful way.

We provide tailored training workshops and design master classes locally and internationally: 

• Our training team are UK certified Eco Schools assessors and NZ trained experienced teachers. We have taught and trained staff and students from Kohanga Reo to university level.
• Our landscape architects, outdoor learning, sensory and natural play designers are similarly experienced teachers and cross over the professional divide, enabling us to be both understanding of curriculum needs and be creative in our delivery.
• Our CPD programmes build partnerships by promoting dialogue and negotiation, empowering people through participation in decision-making.
• We facilitate networking linkages, exchange and interaction among stakeholders in ESD, foster increased quality of teaching and learning in ESD. We support the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development.

Our experienced trainers build a core understanding of the interplay between healthy urban ecology and human health and well-being. Share their enthusiasm and inquire now for course details to meet your needs.

As experts in environmental education our sustainable designers and environmental managers work closely with educational institutions and community groups. We promote healthy schools and sustainable living through environmental awareness and understanding. Our staff includes certified eco-school assessors, checking on the integration of environmental programs across the school, recycling, resource reduction and re-use programmes. As trained Eco School assessors we can help guide you towards green flag status.

Primary CPD courses encourage teaching outdoors across the curriculum, with plenty of hands-on activities. Meet our designers to discuss your playground to facilitate outdoor learning.

Secondary CPD courses focus on curriculum areas of geography, biology, english and maths. Courses give you the tools and resources to use your school grounds to teach the curriculum creatively, outdoors. Teachers are supported to learn or reaffirm fieldwork skills. 

SEN+D workshops days for teachers of ADHD, ASD, and physically disabled students reinforce classroom learning outdoors. A full range of disabilities can be taken outdoors into safe, stimulating environments. Teaching and learning is enriched through experiential learning.

CPD to engage the disengaged offer staff ideas to work with children outdoors. Disengaged students are taught to value themselves, their communities and their abilities through social and therapeutic horticulture. 

Further courses are available on request.

NOTE:

* School grounds or local community gardens need to be managed to facilitate outdoor learning. Greenstone Design can help you with planning your playground.

To see a recent course delivered in conjunction with Curious Minds and Places Matter! check out the video on the linked page.

If you are interested in hosting an INSET day on using your school grounds to enhance delivery of the National Curriculum, please contact us.


All abilities and age groups benefit from learning outside the classroom. Join us for a revitalising CPD day soon. Fees: from just $200 per person. Lunch and refreshments included.

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 Full day and 1/2 day workshops

CPD workshop in the local forestry area, discussing risky play and natural play

 
Using local parks and school grounds for Education Outside the Classroom:
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Contact us for details on a tailor-made playground management workshop of outdoor activities and natural playground design ideas.

We \work with you to decide where best to place outdoor classrooms as an invaluable, quiet, dry outdoor learning space. Outdoor classrooms can be used for outdoor drama productions, during lunchtimes, as well as for a full range of lessons outdoors.

We must change our thinking and actions to conserve our past and move towards a sustainable future.

For more information on how we can design your school playgrounds to suit your present and future outdoor learning needs, or to book a School Grounds Enhancement Day, please contact us.

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Testimonials
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Feedback from architects at the 2014 Urban Design national speaker series - "Wow. I was absolutely was on the edge of my seat during Monday's NZIA Urban Design Series in Auckland", and from Christchurch - "Gayle Souter-Brown's presentation was quite possibly the best I have ever heard"

"Thanks for a brilliant day. Greenstone Design had some great ideas that we're eager to take back to school"

" We  deliver CPD for teachers across 170 schools as part of our remit of developing creative work in schools. Greenstone Design was engaged by our partners Places Matter! and we collaborated on the preparation and delivery of School Environment Outdoor Design  CPD day for teachers in January 2011.

We found Greenstone Design to be :

• responsive and quick in their understanding of our brief for the day
• efficient and professional in all communications with us: an especial pleasure was the way she prepared her presentation in advance and sent it to us with enough time for all partners to genuinely  have an input in the final workshop. She responded sensitively to our feedback and changed the presentation to fit with our objectives.
•  hugely enthusiastic and involved on the day itself, not just in her own presentation but in the whole day. Our feedback from teachers cites Gayle’s input as one of the two most useful elements of the day – the other being the practical exercises devised by others but supported very ably by Gayle
• very pleasant and engaging as a person which helped both in the planning of the day and the overall enjoyment of it by the teachers who attended.

We would have no hesitation in working with and recommending Gayle again on a similar event."

“ Greenstone Design's tutor's knowledge and enthusiasm was just what the staff needed. From a programmatic standpoint, we're now planning our school playground to be an integral teaching resource as well as a bio-diverse, fun space. We're also planning a space that works to uplift the staff and enhance the community's health and well-being.”

​- creative curriculum

Greenstone Design's training director Gayle, in full flow!

Planning your creative curriculum? Contact us for details on training days and focused workshops for creative curriculum, health and well-being, using your school grounds to enliven science, literacy and maths, music, art, ICT and the field work component for science and geography lessons. Outdoor activities to involve the wider community are showcased. Risk management and perceptions of risk are covered. Add value with a whole school inservice day or share costs and get together a consortia of local schools.

Working with students we offer special focus days as well as on-going programmes to support teaching and learning within the school. We will work with you to develop fun activities that engage the disengaged, spark deep understanding in the able and a love and respect for the environment across all abilities and levels.

Greenstone Design's enviro schools training consultants, identified and recognised by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health as best practice providers of innovation to bring the fun back into learning, developing health and well being in schools and the local community, bringing sustainability to the forefront. We offer Inset day training to teachers, administrators and classroom assistants.

We tailor CPD programmes to meet your needs. Whether you require us to develop inclusive outdoor activities to enhance eco days, raise aspirations through outdoor learning programmes, provide training for environmental music for Muslim and non-faith students, environmental art with local artists, design schemes to include lavender to attract pollinating bees to the school orchard, making acidic compost from the staff room tea bags for successful blueberries, invite parents to join the environmental club creating mini-beast habitat in the local churchyard, show how to maximise literacy curriculum benefits of environmental theme weeks, importantly, we bring an 'eco' dimension into the everyday curriculum.

One day inservice day courses are generally held from 09.00 -15.30 at your school, a local consortia-chosen venue, or at a local venue. We supply enviro schools and Playground Design workshops nationwide.

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