Wild Beach at With Nature

Wild Beach at With Nature captures the curiosity and excitement of participants and supports the development of meaningful connections with the coastal environments. We use the local coastline to deepen participant’s understanding and ignite interest in marine environments, building and developing an Ocean Connection and a greater respect for our coastlines and oceans.

Sessions at With Nature are hands on and hold a similar ethos to Forest School. The participants are at the heart of each session, and their interests shape their journey. Throughout the session, there are opportunities to learn about food chains, marine life identity, water safety, habitats, conservation, tides, moon phases, climate, sustainability, conservation, mindfulness and Ocean Connection. This is achieved through exploration, play and harnessing our participant’s natural curiosity about the world around them.

Each session also involves a litter pick to help support their understanding of the impact that humans have on marine environments.

What is Ocean Connection?

Ocean connection is the relationship that a person makes with the ocean or beach that has a beneficial and positive effect on their wellbeing. It draws on personal experiences whilst connecting with the seaside environment and finding the beauty that lies there. It encompasses all the senses and is meaningful to the individual. There are 5 pathways to ocean connection.

These are:

• Contact - being hands on and exploring the beach with your eyes and your hands. Touching and feeling the different textures and engaging with the beach with all your senses.
• Beauty - taking a moment to admire what you see and find the beauty within it. Exploring through what you can see and what you can create using the resources around you.
• Meaning - What does the beach/ocean mean to you? This could be something deeper like childhood memories or using symbolism to represent an idea.
• Emotion - finding awe and wonder in what you are seeing and experiencing whilst on the coast. Allowing yourself time to reflect on how you feel about your experiences whilst engaging with the beach/ocean.
• Compassion - Thinking about what you could do for nature. Think of changes you can make to make a more positive impact on conservation like reducing plastic use or participating in litter picks.

During Wild Beach, participants are offered many opportunities to develop their ocean connection through all the above pathways. This is through hands on experiences with the beach environment, an appreciation of experiences and creations and time to reflect on how they felt whilst participating or opting out.