A regional community park is offering schools in the district the opportunity to be educated outside this autumn.

Lee Valley Regional Park Authority will hold classes for Epping Forest schools over 10,000 acres of land teaching children aged five to 11 about photosynthesis, seasonal fruit, seeds and nature.

The sessions will take place between September and November at Waltham Abbey Gardens, WaterWorks Centre and YHA London Lee Valley.

Lee Valley Youth and Schools Manager Karen Wheeler said: “The sessions involve role play games to understand a seed’s needs for life and students can test their skills on the squirrel nut hunt, collect and identify leaves then plant their own seed to take home.

“One of our key aims is to encourage children and young people to learn outdoors and this has taken on extra resonance with recent studies suggesting children in London are spending greater amount of time indoors and are enjoying much fewer visits to natural places than children elsewhere.”