How quiet should Forest School be?

[AdultHumanFemale]

Our inner city primary has the opportunity to use a woodland a short bus ride away as a regular Forest School base camp. It's a nice spot, with mature trees and a shallow stream running through it. We would be able to organise a proper 'base camp', build a small fire pit, great trees for putting up hammocks, shelters and slack-lines, lots of dead wood for den building etc. It is naturally 'run-away proof' in as much as it is in a gully with cliffs one side and the stream on the other. It opens into a large meadow, lovely for games etc.
Plus points are that we could get there on the bus, saving a fortune on coach hire (and easy to cancel without penalty if the weather is bad), and for this reason afford to go more frequently, building a relationship with the spot.
The problem is, you can hear traffic noise from a road. Not really loudly, but it is definitely there. Does Forest School need to occur against a backdrop of proper quiet to be truly magical? Is it a bit meh otherwise?

The loudest sound should be happy pupils chewing a badger.

Inner city you are going to struggle to get away from noise.

Sounds perfect

That sounds perfect! I grew up in a city and traffic noise sounds like wind in the trees or sea waves to me

once you have lots of children running round enjoying forest school you probably won't really hear the traffic. It sounds brilliant.

I think go for it... Sounds like a great opportunity. DS's "forests" have all been similar. I think there will be very few urban areas where you can't hear traffic at least a little. And its so important to keep trees where we can...if these areas are seen as less valuable because they are a bit noisy, you wonder whether there will be pressure to stop keeping them as woodland.

(lol waxy )

I think they’ll still enjoy it. It’s difficult to get completely away from traffic noise in built up areas.

My DC’s school did some forest school sessions in woodland near the school, and given how near it is to a major A road, there’s no way they had no background traffic noise.

The kids doing the forest school all had a great time.

It's a brilliant idea, kids always thrive in the outdoors and a little background noise will not be any hinderance at all. Our outdoor classroom is the best we can do and I would love a forest school :)

@waxy1 I bet you have been waiting to reply with a badger comment for days! 😂😂

Yes sorry.

Thanks, everyone!
We've previously bought in to Forest School experiences in gorgeous ancient woodland much further out of town, spending a fortune on coaches and 'experience packages'. We think we can deliver it really well ourselves, so I am glad you think some traffic noise is OK. I am going to scout it after work today, feeling quite excited. The stream offers so many possibilities!

I think it sounds nice a bit of background noise won't spoil the experience.

you have lots of children running round enjoying forest school you probably won't really hear the traffic. It sounds brilliant.

I would imagine the noise of all the children enjoying being out in the fresh air will drown out the traffic noise anyway.

It sounds great. The children will probably love it and it is also an adventure for some of them to go on a bus. We live in a very rural area so my DD had only been on a public bus about 4 times by the time she was 10. She loves going on a bus.

My son’s school has a Forest school site that they go to every other week, he loves it. They were making skeletons out of sticks the other week to tie in with their ‘health and body’ topic, plus they also made pumpkin soup and basically have lots of fun. His site is near a semi-busy road but the kids would never notice traffic noise, they are far too involved in their activities.