AN MP visited an infant school to tour the outdoor spaces it uses to inspire and engage its children.

Brighton Pavilion MP Caroline Lucas visited Patcham Infant School on Friday to look at the work it has been doing on their school grounds.

Headteacher Chris Taylor said: “We showed Caroline the outdoor areas of our school and gave her some elderflower cordial which the children have learnt to make.

“I think she was impressed to see how we have utilised the whole school.

“It is still a work in progress, but we have created engaging outdoor spaces for the children, from our outdoor classroom where we have been running forest school since 2016, to our ‘trim trail’ which has just had a makeover.

“Children learn how to use flint strikes to light fires, they make charcoal pencils and do bark printing.

“It is all about team building and teaching them resilience but also about letting them experience mindfulness.

“One of our key goals is nurturing, stimulating and enabling environments.

“With the help of skilled parents and our Big Dig Saturdays, we have made mud kitchens and woodland walkways.

“Parents have also supported the school financially through their generous fundraising in school as well as some families being sponsored to run in the Burgess Hill 10k.”

The school, in Highview avenue south, Brighton, is currently building a winched canopy so that learning can take place come rain or shine.

Sussex Wildlife Trust has given the school a strip of woodland which it uses and maintains regularly.

Teachers have worked with school councillors to find out what the children want and have led on the redesign of an overgrown pond area and a neglected sensory garden.