Outdoor Active Kids (OAK) is a preschool facility with a difference. Operating along the same lines as other preschools, but this is a school without walls.

Each morning on arrival, the children are kitted out in waterproof outdoor clothing before going out to the playground.

Except this playground is different.

OAK has it’s very own magic door. Walking through the “Doras Draíochta” children have access to a two-acre world of natural wonder. Muddy puddles, music walls, rolling hills, sand pits and mud kitchens are among the natural learning stimuli used. All done under the watchful eye of the staff and a majestic oak tree at the far end of the field.

The preschool is primarily outdoors with the children only using the indoor facility if there are completely adverse weather conditions.

Run by Bernadette O’Brien, a qualified primary school teacher with a master’s in teaching and learning, the school is on her and her husband Seán’s dairy farm in Ballinascarta, Midleton, Co Cork.

A child-led school

Bernadette completed research for her master’s on home education.

“I’m acutely aware of the importance for children to learn everywhere they go, particularly outdoors in nature. We started an outdoor play school in 2016, right beside the farm. It’s the first outdoor play school for children from three to five years and it’s self-discovery and very much child led. Parents can drop their kids for three hours.”

To describe what a typical day entails is difficult as Bernadette explains: “Every day is different. They come here clean and they go home clean which is great for the parents.

“They could be gardening, creating art, baking, singing and rhyming.

“We also give the children a taste for Gaeilge. It is used informally throughout the day in nursery rhymes, games and songs.

“At that young age, they’re like sponges and soak up the language. We give them a taste of it without forcing it.”

Seán chimes in: “They learn measurements while baking or gardening. They put in one spud and a few months later they dig it up and there’s nine or 10 spuds the size of marbles but the children are fascinated and there’s a sense of achievement.

“When they go out, the first place they go is the oak tree at the end of the field. If we were to walk it, it would only take two minutes but for them it’s probably 10 minutes and a huge adventure.”

A positive response

The venture is proving successful so far with parents traveling from Cobh and Cork city so their children can have the OAK experience.

“Parents are seeing children sleeping better at night, their immunities aren’t compromised by being indoors most of the time,” Bernadette points out.

“We opened in 2016 and started with eight children. Today there are 32 children enrolled, split over two sessions. The biggest thing we have learned is that every single situation is different. But there is the common thread of the need or want to have their children outdoors in nature.”

So what inspired them to go down this route?

“Our first two children went through normal play school and we got a desire to have them outside more. As a mother, I wasn’t getting out with the older ones to muck about,” says Bernadette, “I thought if you had a setup where children could be outside mucking about it would be better.

“That was a priority for me, here was a real sense of relief that they were outside.”

With it being a success there was a temptation to expand OAK, but as Bernadette explains there is an awful lot of work in the background.

“You still have to have an indoor facility, there’s paperwork and then so many kids per staff and happy staff is important. We have three wonderful staff in OAK – Sinead, Ana and Derek.”

Instead of growing the preschool, the O’Briens took on the next level of education.

“Our own kids are getting that bit older. We started them in the Gaelscoil and were happy with it, but we were always thinking outside the box,” said Bernadette.

Outside the box

That approach of thinking differently stems from the couples’ own contrasting education experiences.

While Bernadette is a qualified primary school teacher, Seán finished school at 15 and was diagnosed with dyslexia in third level.

At OAK, the children use the outdoors and activities as a means for learning new skills such as numeracy as well as learning Gaeilge. \ Donal O’Leary

He said: “In primary school, I was the maintenance man. I was sent down to get the milk with a buddy of mine. We were put cleaning up, they were jobs we were put doing because I couldn’t sit down and was always looking out the window.”

The O’Briens opened a Sudbury school for primary and secondary school children from five to 18 years last September.

A Sudbury school is a school where children have responsibility for their own education and are free to follow their own interests. For example, if a student is interested in maths or geography, then they can study it for as long as they want.

Sinéad O’Sullivan, Derrick Cooney, Seán O’Brien, Ana Saelices Torres and Bernadette O’Brien of Outside Active Kids in Midleton, Co Cork. \ Donal O’Leary

Bernadette explains: “I’ve always been interested in different ways of learning and this was one of the models that came up. The learning is coming from the children, it’s self-directed and the adults are there to facilitate it and trust the children.

“They are facilitators, not teachers. The most important thing is to leave them at it and trust the children that they have the want and curiosity to learn. While you are giving them the freedom, you are setting them up to self-discipline. We could have opened another playschool but this is what we chose to do.”

Bernadette O'Brien. \ Donal O'Leary

Irish Country Living would like to extend warm congratulations to Sean and Bernadette who welcomed their sixth child, baby Joseph to the world since this interview took place.