Discoveries is for children born between September 2011 and August 2013, meeting in a welcoming space in Eastville with a large, leafy garden and wooded area.

The group is led by Athene, an experienced and wonderful tutor and supported by assistants Anna and Natasha.

Anna has worked as a freelance artist and puppet maker over the years and also as a creative youth worker running creative courses for young people and supporting them 1-2-1. Anna enjoys cooking and baking, making fires and exploring lots of forms of creativity.

“I love to be in the moment and I feel that working with children and young people makes me feel like this.”

The group is further supported by parents and skilled individuals for handwork, dance and movement, singing, crafts and games.

Topics

For their Geology topic the Discoveries started with mountains, rocks, Pangea, plate movements, earthquakes, volcanoes, the rock cycle, coal, petroleum, metals and gems.

This was supported by a wonderful workshop held by Mark Smalley (BBC Radio 4 presenter) and Tom Walmsley (from Nature Connection and Eco Lab), who shared with the group their geological knowledge and expertise. The children wrote poems inspired by the rock collection and, choosing a rock each, they conversed with it and asked it questions! They also learned about fossils and Tom’s pet kestrel ‘Sandy’.

As park of their animal topic the children were able to research an animal of their choice. They created clay animals and produced an environment for them to live in and wrote a summary of their findings.

The Discoveries visited Eastwood Farm in Brislington with One Tree Per Child to plant some trees. The group planted a mix of native trees including Rowan, Silver Birch, Wild Cherry and Oak. They helped with all aspects of the planting from digging the holes, planting and mulching.

The Discoveries display at the end of year celebration of work.

End of term treat to see a movie at 20th Century Flicks.

Contact Discoveries

To find out more please email discoveriesappletree@gmail.com