Nature's Playground Activities, Crafts and Games to Encourage Your Children to Enjoy the Great Outdoors

About Fiona Danks, Jo Schofield

Jo Schofield gained a degree in psychology from Exeter University and began her career working for an educational psychologist in London. After getting involved in the production of a film, she went on to work in the creative department of a TV advertising agency where she began taking still photographs. This led on to her becoming a commercial photographer in Australia and then London. She worked mainly for national editorial magazines such as Country Living. When her children were small she worked in Watlington Primary School and the Dragon school in Oxford, applying her creative knowledge to the classroom with children aged 6-9 years. More recently she has been focusing on writing and photographing for a series of books with co-author Fiona Danks.

Fiona Danks did a degree in Ecology at Edinburgh University followed by a PGCE in Rural and Environmental Science at Bath College of Higher Education. She worked in environmental education for a number of years, first for the Shropshire Wildlife Trust and then for the Berkshire Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust, organizing training for teachers and taking groups of children out to nature reserves and other wild sites. She then went on to write books about the Chiltern Hills and the Cotswold Hills while working part-time running activities in a pre-school nursery. She currently runs the Trust for Oxfordshire’s Environment, a charity and non-profit making company providing grants for environmental projects across Oxfordshire. This part-time role complements her partnership with Jo Schofield; together they are researching, photographing and writing a series of books under the name “Going Wild”. Fiona is also a trustee of the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust.

The inspiration and ideas for their books came from sharing combined adventures with their own families and a mutual belief in the importance of giving children and young people the freedom to enjoy outdoor adventures.

Together they have written Nature’s Playground, Go Wild, Make it Wild , Run Wild and now The Stick Book. Their aim is to inspire all young people to get off the sofa, away from the temptations of technology and have real-life fun experiences outdoors. They believe through this hands on learning positive benefits are evident, producing healthier, confident, well-balanced adults with a greater respect and understanding of the natural world.