Forest School
What is Forest School?
Forest School is not a location, or a badge, it is an ethos in which children and young people are given encouragement to direct their own learning through play and exploration in nature, giving participants the option to take part in planned activities or to engage in free play. It is a holistic approach, focusing on all aspects of child development and growth simultaneously.
Our forest school leaders can come to your school, help you develop your forest school area and lead your sessions.
Pupils learn a wide range of skills such as cooperation and communication through play
Our sessions incorporate series of small achievable steps which grows confidence in themselves and their abilities
Our sessions are proven to grow grows self-esteem and increase motivation to learn.
Forest School encourages children to:
Learn by doing
take and handle acceptable risks
work in teams and cooperate with others
think for themselves
develop personal and social skills
work through practical problems and challenges
use tools to create, build and manage
discover how they learn best
pursue knowledge that interests them
learn how to manage failures
build confidence in decision making
develop practical skills
explore connections between humans, wildlife and Earth
regularly experience achievement and success
reflect on learning and experiences
improve physical motor skills
develop their language and communication skills
Forest School ACTIVITIES
Children and young people are encouraged to direct their own learning through play and exploration in nature, giving participants the option to take part in planned activities or to engage in free play.
Activities include…
…den building, natural shelters, minibeast hunting, mud kitchen play, climbing, building, creating, games and imaginative play, blindfold activities, storytelling, arts and crafts, survival skills, bushcraft, fire lighting, fire maintenance, cooking over fires, scavenger hunts, using specialised tools such as knives, saws, drills, light and maintain fires and cook over fires
The tasks increase in skill level. During sessions, we use specialised tools and skills such as knives, saws, drills and fire lighting equipment.
It was wonderful to see the children exploring nature, having a go and working well as a team. Less confident children came alive during these sessions. Fire lighting and whittling were new experiences and the children persevered, developing new confidence and had lots of fun in a safe, happy environment. Very well led, definitely want to book again!
Teacher, Amblecote Primary School
How does it fit with Ofsted?
The new Common Inspection Framework covers four key areas.
Two of which are:
- personal development, behaviour and welfare
- outcomes for children and learners
From 2019 your school can now be recognised for how the curriculum provides opportunities for personal development independently of the way you deal with behaviour and pupil attitudes to learning, unlike in previous years. We help you provide evidence for these new areas of the Framework by using Forest School to provide personal development opportunities and work on the outcomes for children as individuals.
The October 2018 report on ‘Obesity, healthy eating and physical activity in primary school’ concluded that schools should focus on improving the things they are best placed to do, such as:
- providing ample opportunity for children to take physical exercise during the school day – with lots of opportunities to ‘get out of breath’
- teaching particular skills like how to cook or how to dance, or even how to ride a bike
If you would like to measure the progress of the children and young people on these programmes we can gather essential baseline information on the children such as confidence, behaviour, academic ability, relationships with others, and reassess these capabilities at the end.
“Forest School steps boldly out of the shadow and limitations of ‘planned activities’ and ventures into the realms of the unplanned, unexpected and ultimately unlimited!”
Delivery Options
Forest School is a motivational outdoor teaching method which we can design to suit the needs of your students or group. Activities can be curriculum or project based. We will meet with your teachers/leaders to develop the session plans that best suit your desired learning outcomes.
Contact Us
hannah@opentrail.co.uk
Locations
Open Trail is based in Kidderminster; we work with schools, community groups, families and individuals in Worcestershire and The Black Country, are able to provide our activities on your site, Burlish Bike Park or at local BMX tracks.
