Forest school

[nm123]

DD will start nursery in a few weeks when she's 12mo. Both our chosen nursery and the primary school she's likely to go to have mentioned "forest school". I didn't give it much thought at the time and didn't ask for more info.. But what is it? I get that it's outdoorsy-nature stuff but is it run by different people to the normal staff? I like the sound of it but just not sure on the structure etc!

Can be either, more often its a member of staff. It's fantastic. They really get confident at exploring the outdoors. I've done basic training in it and it can really encourage confident, imagination and team work.

When I have observed sessions we have built dens, have stories around an imaginary fire (some have real), made stick men, and done some artwork using sticks and mud.

So perhaps "forest class" would be more apt for my pea brain!

I love the idea of it - can't wait for DD to get stuck in!!

Hi, I've done forest school training and its brilliant! We get the kids making dens, doing art work with natural items like leaves and pine cones. As children progress they do more and at age 7+ we work with them to use tools to make mallets and teach them how to safely make a fire to cook on

They climb trees, play and get filthy. It's a great leveller, away from the academic hierarchy of the classroom.
We love it.

We take our year ones, we basically let them do whatever they want and try not to interfere, it is all child-led (unless we are making fire obviously). They think they are just playing but they learn lots of things without realising, and they love getting filthy without anyone stopping them. We make observations on all the children, what they are doing, things they say, how they work with others and it's really interesting to see how different dynamics can be outside of a normal classroom.

My dd did it in reception. It was really good for her. A child that didn't like to get dirty. She struggled for that reason with first couple of sessions but then loved it and enjoyed the fire making and learning to use a knife properly.

It's playing in the woods. Good fun.

Ds goes to a school that is really big on the whole forest school stuff and he is thriving - it's ideal for him. They made a fire last week and they do loads of interesting stuff. He's in year R but the whole primary school have a forest school session at least once a week.

It's his usual teachers/Tas that do it with them but I know at least some of them have had special training.

Our school does it from year 1 up for half a day every week come rain or shine and they love it!