Our Early Childhood Coordinator Tracey Mayhew was delighted to represent Natura Education at the Nature Play Qld Symposium 2017 held at Palm Beach recently. Here Tracey shares with us her account of the day:
And what a great day it was! Nearly 300 childcare educators and primary school teachers all gathered together to share inspiration for the greater good of children Australia wide. I felt very lucky to attend this wonderful event, along with our Natura Education team of earthy creatures, natural mirror mandalas, our GroNATIVE App and even a few free gumtrees for the teachers to plant.
From laughter workshop blocks to beach and bush connections, Tallebudgera Beach School was the ideal location for this event that was so focussed on appreciation of the wonders of nature. With a lot of guests and presenters travelling from interstate and overseas we were all treated with warm and sunny weather and a beautiful weekend of learning and team building.
The Nature Play organisers created an event that was not only a source of in-depth and important information on the value of children’s outdoor learning environments, but also an invaluable opportunity to connect. This connection we all share, and we are all striving for – connection with nature! A connection that for most of today’s children has somehow been lost amidst the modern technology and time-poor parents, as well as the demands of operating high quality educational settings.
We learnt a lot, we were reminded of the importance of simplicity and we were inspired by the passion of all who were present.
Best of all this experience made me genuinely question whether all of our positive thoughts and intentions will be enough to provide the next generation with all they need to thrive? And I think we just might be able to do it! With a little bit of passion and a lot of action, we may just be the ones to spark that critical little piece of inspiration in another, and then another and then another.
They do say that ‘from little things big things grow’, and in this case it appears they could be right.
Thank you to Nature Play Qld and all of the effort and organisation you put in to make this a successful weekend. We look forward to doing it all over again next year.
