Children at Manor House School, Honiton, are thrilled with their new outdoor classroom – a Yurt!

Children at Manor House School, Honiton, are thrilled with their new outdoor classroom - a Yurt!

In woods at the school, excited children work together to build a den, make up stories about characters they have made out of natural materials, collect wood for fires or for sawing to make kebab sticks for cooking marshmallows or toast.

The Yurt will be the centre point of the Forest School, a place where happy children (and the adults with them!) can return after a busy session of outdoor learning for a hot drink and a review of all that they have discovered and shared together.

The 21� diameter Yurt is a portable structure that can be sited in various locations of the School's 22 acre grounds. Headmaster Adam Gibson said "The Yurt will bring a great new perspective to the children's learning in a natural, rural environment."

Yurts have been the traditional homes of the nomadic pastoral peoples living on the treeless steppes of Mongolia and Kyrgyzstan for more than 2000 years. Yurts are cool in summer and warm in winter, designed to give comfort and shelter in Siberian winds and temperatures that can range from +45C to -55C - so should just about cope with the East Devon climate.