A course for primary and nursery teachers wanting to engage children in outdoor learning, permaculture practitioners who work with children, home educators, and anyone else who is interested in engaging children in permaculture and/or outdoor learning.
Book here for 'Outdoor Classrooms: A Permaculture Education with Children'
May 15th - 16th 2106.
Presented by Carolyn Nuttall and Janet Millington, authors of Outdoor Classrooms - a handbook for school gardens
Biographies:
Carolyn Nuttall
Carolyn Nuttall is acknowledged as one of the pioneers of garden-based learning in schools. Her discovery of the benefits of school gardens for teaching and learning began in 1992, when the young children in her class made a small no-dig edible garden in the grounds of their Brisbane school. This activity captured the minds of the children who, over the year, went on to create a huge permaculture food forest - an outdoor classroom filled with the lessons of the classroom and experiences of the natural world.
She was approached by the Permaculture Institute to document her work. The outcome has been the publication of two books and a series of worksheets for the classroom. "A Children's Food Forest: an outdoor classroom 1996", "The Food Forest Worksheets. 2003" and "Outdoor Classrooms: a handbook for school gardens 2008" which she co-wrote with Janet Millington.
Carolyn's ideas for teaching the young have been acknowledged globally with translations of her books, visits and sales world-wide.
She remains active promoting the school garden as a prime exemplar for teaching sustainability, individual resourcefulness and self-reliance - the skills, she believes, that are needed for an uncertain future.
Carolyn Nuttall B.Ed St Grad.Dip.Ed St PDC
Janet Millington
Janet is an educator, author and researcher with an extensive background in community development- much of which has been in the promotion of Permaculture. As a classroom teacher for twenty two years and with a Masters of Education, Janet has used her knowledge and experience to promote permaculture and permaculture education.
She has been a director of Permaculture Australia for 5 years and The Permaculture Institute for 2 years. She co-taught on Permaculture Design Courses with Bill Mollison for several years and has taught Permaculture courses locally, nationally and internationally during the past 20 years.
Janet has designed many school gardens, working with teachers to provide engaging and authentic learning experiences for children of all ages. She co-authored “Outdoor Classrooms” with Carolyn Nuttall and enjoys supporting teachers and parents in delivering many aspects of the curriculum from the
school garden.
Between 2001and 2009 Janet worked with the Permaculture team that developed the Permaculture Training Package which became a recognised course within the Australian Qualifications Training Framework offering Certificates I-IV and a Diploma in Permaculture. She then went on to develop, present and assess “train the trainer courses” that provide specialist trainers for permaculture teachers with Robin Clayfield.
Janet presented at the 5th World Environment Education Congress in Montreal describing Australian innovation in environmental and sustainability education based in Permaculture as “unique and profound”.
Janet was a leader in the global Transition Towns movement in Australia. Together with Sonya Wallace, she facilitated the writing of the first ever Energy Decent Action Plan (EDAP) outside the UK.
At present Janet is completing a Law Degree, supporting past students in their work and developing a web site that will present information for communities to prepare for challenges of the future. She continues to work with permaculture groups in Australia and Asia and makes herself available to support permaculture initiatives whenever she can and she maintains , “… there is no greater thing we can do for our children than to ensure they receive their birthright; a love and understanding of nature and a knowledge of their place in it”