Welcome to our Forest School
What Are Forest Schools?
“A Forest School is an innovative educational approach to outdoor play and learning.”
The philosophy of our Forest School is to encourage and inspire our children through positive outdoor experiences.
By participating in motivating, exciting and achievable activities in a woodland environment, children have opportunities to develop motivation, emotional and social skills and self awareness to enable them to reach their full potential.
Our Forest School will aim to develop:
- Self Awareness
- Motivation
- Empathy
- Good social communication skills
- Independence
- A positive mental attitude, self-esteem and confidence
This time and reflective practice develops understanding of the world, the environment and everything within it through the use of emotions, imagination and senses.
We love mud
Sometimes when we go to the woods we get a bit dirty.
We have been exploring trees and looking to see if they are all the same.
We made mud paint and used it to paint pictures of the trees.
We love climbing!
One of our favourite things to do at Forest Schools is climbing in the trees. We feel very safe and happy sitting in a tree.
Conker Creatures
We have been exploring autumn.
Look at us using the conker clamps to make woodland creatures.
Can you see the butterfly , the panda and the lovely jewellery we made?
Camp Fire time
We all had a lovely time toasting marshmallows at the camp fire. We whittled our sticks for toasting, we helped to collect sticks and organised them by size. The marshmallows were delicious. We all helped to put the fire out and each made a wish. Let's hope that they come true.
We love hunting
We love looking for things during our Forest School sessions.
Look at the Harlequin Ladybird larvae we found, they were surrounded by hundreds of aphids.
We keep looking for the new ladybird each time we visit the woods.
Team work
Forest Schools is all about team work and cooperation with others.
The concept of Forest Schools was developed in Scandinavia, and operates on the principle that children of all ages benefit from the learning opportunities present in a woodland environment. They found that by taking the majority of their learning outdoors, whatever the weather, their children became resilient, confident and independent learners.
Forest Schools builds on the natural instinct to learn and explore. It offers opportunities for children to make choices for their own learning and take and manage risks. Development of these skills encourages positive attitudes and behaviour.
The sessions are not activity based but instead are led by the interests of the learners. Children may enjoy such experiences as building shelters, woodland craft work, telling stories, climbing trees, hunting for mini beasts and making mud pies. As the programme develops woodland tools and lighting camp fires are introduced to extend learning and provide new opportunities for risk management.