Forest School is an inspirational process offering ALL learners regular opportunities to achieve and develop confidence and through hands-on learning experiences in a woodland or natural environment with trees.

Forest School is a specialised learning approach that sits within and complements the wider context of outdoor learning. (forestschoolassociation.org)

 

All Forest School sessions are run by qualified adults and take place outdoors – whatever the weather – in our designated Forest School site; the fenced-in area at the back of the school within our school premises. 

We facilitate a high-quality and fun-experience for children of all year-groups, aiming to build life skills, improve abilities and confidence week by week through practical and hands-on activities in the outdoors. It gives our children the chance to explore, learn and discover at their own pace in a safe and supportive environment. We promote child-centred learning through play and we stimulate imagination, creativity and investigation by using a range of child-friendly, age-appropriate resources and natural materials.  

Activities include:

• Natural Art 
• Bug Hunts
• Shelter building
• Woodwork using tools, e.g. making bird feeders, nesting boxes, decorative items or musical instruments. 
• Using string, sticks and rope to practice knots and lashings to make and create things 
• Fire safety awareness, building a campfire and prepare food to cook over it

The benefits of our Forest School activities encourage our children to 

• stay physically active and emotionally healthy
• develop practical skills and independent learning
• heighten self-awareness and improve social/ emotional skills and resilience 
• practice co-operation and working as a group
• take care of ourselves and others
• identify, care for, appreciate and respect wildlife, plants and the environment in general
• expand our knowledge and understanding of the natural world.  
• take healthy and age-appropriate risks and learn how to manage them 

All adults are trained First-Aiders and all activities are age-appropriate and carefully risk-assessed before each session. The Forest School leader continues to monitor the safety of the group as activities progress. 

School Pets

Bella the star of the school

Our school dog Bella is a very friendly cocka-poo who is extremely popular among our pupils. She adds so much value and a real fun-factor to our Forest School sessions with her kind, playful, loving and gentle personality. She loves being with children in the great outdoors and she is famous for her great expertise on sticks, bark and shelter-testing.

Our Famous Chickens

Yes, we also have school chickens! Pecko, Melody, DJ, Cameron, Melody and Egg Sheeran have been named by our children and are just as popular as our school dog. All the hens are carefully selected Lohman-Brown and Rhode-Islanders, a particularly tame and child-friendly breed. They are very kind, talkative and just love being surrounded by children. They live in a purpose-built, enclosed and sheltered run that is well maintained and carefully monitored by dedicated staff who help our pupils learn how to care for and look after our pets. Small groups of children are visiting the hens on a daily basis, in their outdoor free-range area with adult supervision to help promote social-emotional well-being and to educate our children about the specific needs of animals, caring for the environment and respecting nature in general.