Forest School
What is Forest School?
The Forest School ethos is to provide learner led development during regular sessions within a woodland environment.
We aim to give children a freedom to learn and engage in tasks at a different pace and with no defined outcomes. It provides them with a space to think, away from four walls. The ambience found beneath the canopy of trees can almost instantly relax and refresh them, leading to better outcomes in many respects. With all this in place, we are able to help the child develop holistically. With careful observation, it is the role of the Forest School leader to observe the child as a whole. Looking at their development in the following areas: social, physical, intellectual, communication, emotional and spiritual.
The inspirational process offers opportunities to achieve, develop confidence and self-esteem through hands-on learning. It offers the chance to initiate their own learning, to think creatively, which leads to better problem solving, to be resourceful and learn to assess and take risks, all with safety as paramount.
Sessions may start with a theme or a task, but the direction can sometimes change based on the interests of the children. This keeps them engaged and enthusiastic, which in turn leads to a deeper level of learning. 
To ensure that children are able to fully immerse themselves in their exploration, it is vital that they wear the correct clothing to the sessions. If they are worried about getting an item of clothing dirty, it will prove too much of a distraction for them to fully benefit from the session. On your child's Forest School day they should come into school wearing school uniform on top (polo shirt and cardigan or sweatshirt) and dark coloured trousers or leggings below. They will also need to bring wellies to change into (if they do not have wellies an old pair of trainers would be fine – as long as you don’t mind them getting dirty).
Forest School is based entirely outdoors, come rain or shine! (The only exception being high winds or thunderstorms.) As the saying goes, ‘there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing!'
Autumn Term Timetable : Please refer to your ParentMail for your child's group.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What children can expect from their sessions :
Session from October 2024 -
We’ve spent the session discussing nocturnal animals, what it means, who they are, how do we know they’re around etc. The children were very interested in the clues that tell us which animals have visited our camp in the night. As part of this, we looked at owl pellets that I’ve found there and discussed those further.
The children were invited to build a hedgehog house, using whatever woodland materials they could find. This proved quite popular.
Today we set up a nature camera in the camp to see which nocturnal animals we might spot. The children helped sprinkle some biscuit crumbs to tempt the animals!
Please check out our wildlife camera footage from our woodland :
Nature cam mouse : https://youtu.be/dwWqNPYMK5I
Nature cam squirrel : https://youtu.be/joJ9jpvtMqw
Nature cam fox : https://youtu.be/Zh0-LnPpY2Q
We’ve talked a lot about the season and all the different signs that tell us we’re in autumn. A particular fascination was the sweet chestnuts, and spotting all the areas where the squirrels had been feasting on them.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Session from January 2025 -
We talked about animals starting to hibernate and they were all given the opportunity to create a “hibernation den” for some cuddly toys I had brought in. They worked really hard and showed lots of empathy - designing dens that would keep them dry, warm, fed and entertained!
Some children were very interested in examining the autumn leaves. I had brought in a light that they placed the leaves on to highlight all the veins in them. We compared some to the lines on our hands. In their words we were “scanning the leaves!”
I also brought some conkers in as the children had been getting confused between them and the sweet chestnuts. They enjoyed looking at the differences and putting them under the magnifying glass.
