One area non-profit school is proving learning can happen anywhere.
The Trailblazer School of North Georgia in Buford is a nature- based school that encourages its students to pursue their curiosities and care for the environment. Co-Director Ashleigh Croft says while most schools teach in four-wall buildings, their approach to education is a little bit different.
“On our day to day, we are typically outside,” Croft said. “...We have five individual classrooms, plus our outdoor lunch room, where children really spend the majority of their day, weather permitting.”
While Trailblazers does teach traditional school subjects, the school’s curriculum places an emphasis on environmental studies. Croft said allowing the students to learn in nature has proved beneficial for students with various needs.
“We want [students] to learn to be stewards of nature,” she explained. “...there is such a wonderful amount of resources and knowledge out there that shows that children with ADHD really thrive in nature based environments, children with different, neurodiverse needs– that nature aspect is really, for lack of a better word, grounding. It helps them to feel more secure in their learning environment. We are really working on those big academic subjects, but in a way that benefits children and their specific needs as well.”
However, even in an outdoor learning space, the school still finds ways to integrate technology into its lessons that guides students to have healthy relationships with their devices.
“There are really great ways to use technology in the environment as well,” Croft said. “We can use it for monitoring bird calls, watching for animal tracks, using it to help identify different trees, just in a very basic foundation of how technology works in environmental science.”
The program currently serves students in Pre-K through sixth grade. Trailblazers operates on a homeschool-hybrid schedule, meaning students receive instruction three days a week and study independently when school is not in session. The school is accredited through the Georgia Accrediting Commission. Its schedule covers 60% of the required 180 days of schooling required by homeschooled students in Georgia.
Croft says as the school continues to grow, administration plans to expand its offerings to serve seventh and eighth grade students as well.
“We want children to really have this environment of learning in nature where they can have the freedom to move within the boundaries they need to learn,” she said. “...That they have that support system in a school environment that looks a little different from a traditional school, but you're still getting the needs from a traditional school environment in a non-traditional way.”
http://accesswdun.com/article/2025/1/1281132/watch-trailblazers-school-of-north-georgia-provides-nature-based-education