Natur.ed

Natur.ed connects kids to their local natural environment we go hiking, swimming, yabbying, rock pool rambling shelter making, orienteering, seed saving, bush food hunting to name a few things.

Natur.ed gives kids the time and space for unstructured play to develop and learn through collaboration, communication, creating and critical thinking in nature.

We pick kids up afterschool from their school, go for a mini adventure in our bus to the bush or the beach, creek and return them back to school 2 hours later. Natur.ed is a program that runs for the term, a session is $35 per 2 hr session and on average a term runs for 10 weeks.

Nature play is fundamentally child led learning that promotes the prevention and control of mental health disorders such as anxiety through building skills and exposing participants to experiences designed to provide a sense of grounding, learning, environmental stewardship and connection to the world. Nature.ed actively encourages kids to connect to nature, and raises their awareness of the importance of such activities for the prevention and control of their mental health.

Primary school aged children, as 40% of children by the age of 14 will struggle with mental health issues such as anxiety. We target these children through the Natur.ed mental health prevention program and work closely with their well being officer..

Yes you can book for 1 trial session if there is space but priority will be given to full bookings as we have limited capacity. Please contact us if you would like a trial session, failing that we can organise to come to your kids school for a free trial if you can get approx. 10 keen participants.

There are risks inherent with outdoor activities, we mitigate these with outdoor experience, and risk assessments on activities and locations.

We also believe that there are many more risks linked to ‘devices’ that are not perceived to be ‘risky’ like physical risks associated with outdoor play but adversely affect children. The 2022 National Health Survey noted that up to 40% of children will be affected by a mental health issue, we believe the research by observing that nature play mitigates these adverse affects such as anxiety.

Sadly we cannot offer make up days due to logistics, our sessions are ususally fully booked and have no spare places on alternative days.

The safety, wellbeing, and experience that all children have when they attend Natur.ed is paramount. A duty of care and all reasonable measures have been taken to ensure your child’s safety. In the event of an unexpected injury or if your child becomes unwell, we will contact you and/or the relevant medical authorities promptly. All appropriate steps will be taken to ensure the child is safe.

Kids attending Natur.ed must come prepared and should be dressed appropriately for the season and weather. All child must have their own full water bottle and plenty of lunch and snacks.

We regularly review our safety expectations with students. This includes advising/reminding children of boundaries, safe tool use, expectations and routines.

Natur.ed will take all reasonable measures to ensure your child’s safety. If your child acts outside of the instructions given to them, then they do so at their own risk and they may be instructed to leave the activity.

In the unlikely case that a child becomes aggressive, threatening or violent and staff are concerned for the safety of the child, other children or staff members, the Group Leader will be required to take necessary measures to protect those involved and prevent the situation escalating. This may include: calling parents to collect the child, or removing the child physically from the area/situation.

All Policies and our Health and Safety Management Plan is available on request. 

Participation in all Natur.ed activities is voluntary although kids are supported and encouraged by their group to participate. We encourage kids to learn to asses risk safety and take calculated risks.

We would like to offer subsidies to children who suffer from anxiety or who could directly benefit from Natur.ed and are unable to afford a term of Natur.ed. We are not in a position just yet to offer subsidies but are hoping to in the new year. Please fill in the below information.

Any Individual or business who would like to support this initiative to subsidise a place for a child to benefit from the Natur.ed program please fill in the below info.

Kids love the rain, they like getting wet! We are only out in the elements for approx 1.5 hours, make sure you pack the kids appropriate clothes , rain coats [gumboots, beanies and ideally waterproof pants in winter.

If it is unsafe to be outdoors we have backup indoor locations, such as the scouts hall and community house spaces. The need for an indoor location is very rare, and we are always checking the weather to determine the best location due to the weather.

Because Natur.ed is mainly child led, besides our safety briefings and our basic rules their is little direction or instruction, allowing kids freedom to play. The majority of children thrive in this environment. However, a few children can experience sensory overload and have spent less time in nature and struggle to feel comfortable, we are working to create a bridging program.

We believe so, families who self manage their NDIS funding may be able to claim through Social and community particpation, development of living and life skills.

While you may be jealous of your kids adventures parents can interrupt the children’s play flow, if you would like to discover our locations ask your child to share their special spots. If that is not enough, ask us How you can get involved with the Natur.ed program.