Forest School

What is Forest School?

Forest School is an inspirational process that offers children and young people regular opportunities to achieve, and develop confidence and self-esteem through hands-on learning experiences in a woodland environment.

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.

7 + 10 =

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.