My wife, Rosie Edwards, who has died suddenly of complications from colitis, aged 62, was a nationally recognised teacher in the field of outdoor learning. She dedicated her professional life to helping children understand the natural world.
Born in Shrewton, Wiltshire, to Leslie and Dorothy Williams, both farmworkers, Rosie attended South Wilts grammar school for girls in Salisbury before studying geography at Leeds University. In the late 1970s she was appointed head of geography at Bretton Woods community school, near Peterborough. Her twin passions of working with children and the environment came together when she became first deputy and later head of the Stibbington field studies centre in Cambridgeshire in 1984.
Inheriting the rundown Victorian school and a collection of dilapidated prefabs, Rosie spent the next 32 years turning them into a centre of excellence. She inspired staff and volunteers to create an environment where primary school children could learn about and immerse themselves in the world of nature.
The centre became so successful that it attracted visits from schools across the east of England and beyond for day and residential courses. It was a welcoming place for children where they could move outside the restraints of the classroom. They enjoyed searching for mini-beasts in the ponds, studying renewable energy and learning about map reading. Rosie even used the antiquated classroom to recreate the experience of Victorian pupils.
Both teachers, she and I met in Sheffield at the 1993 annual conference of the Geographical Association. I moved from Northern Ireland to live with Rosie in Castor, near Peterborough, and we married in 1999.
For eight years Rosie chaired the National Association of Field Studies Officers and was instrumental in publishing teachers’ guides on using the environment to assist learning. She somehow found time to edit a community magazine for her local villages and recently developed new skills, singing in St Mary’s church choir in Wansford, where we settled in 2001, and the Peterborough Choral Society.
Rosie will be remembered by the thousands of children who experienced the Stibbington centre whom she inspired to care for the world around them.
She is survived by me and her brother, Chas.
