With fingers crossed for an Indian summer, Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority discovery staff are back in business this autumn to help teachers make the most of the outdoors in their lessons.

Whether you are interested in a woodland walk, wish to explore your creative side at Oriel y Parc in St. Davids, or are looking to go back in time at Castell Henllys or Carew Castle, the National Park Authority has something innovative for school children of all ages.

"Autumn is the perfect time for children to get outdoors", explained National Park discovery ranger Craig Stringer.

"Everything is changing as the natural world makes its colourful preparations for the quieter, but challenging season of winter, and is providing a fruitful harvest for wildlife.

"It's a fantastic time for children to discover, build, question, and to have fun."

Hot on the heels of recent successful in-service training for teachers are two new sessions, Mucky Maths and Words in Wellies, which are now available for school groups.

The new inspiring sessions have been designed to enable teachers to take numeracy and literacy lessons outdoors, and have been developed from the new subject guidance issued to schools.

The authority's sessions are available in woodland, on the beach or in the river, as well as at Carew Castle and Tidal Mill and Castell Henllys Iron Age Fort, which are managed by the Park Authority.

Here children use maths or English to give meaning to life in the Iron Age or Tudor times and to understand why much of a person's day was spent simply surviving.

Maths and English are core components of the National Curriculum, and these new sessions hope to demonstrate to teachers and pupils that they can be delivered in a variety of locations, but also that by delivering sessions outside they offer something new.

Craig added: "These sessions are not just about learning new skills, but also about being able to apply them in a local setting which is fun and inspiring."

For more information about bilingual learning opportunities with the Park Authority's discovery staff in the outdoor environment across literacy, numeracy, science and geography curricula, please contact the team at [email protected]">[email protected] or on 01646 624856.