Does anyone know anything about Forest Schools or courses?

[KatyMac]

I'm off on one on friday and thought I'd do a bit of background stuff

So......sounds like guides?

oooooo was at a course today and had a speaker form the forest school (forestry commission) and a school who had been involved in the project. Sounds fab!

I thought it was more about ways of learning

Is it appropriate for Early Years?

The speaker went into the school on a 12 week project(primary) and worked with a group of 16 children from P4-7. Some of the children came along and were speaking too. It can be used across the curriculum, but in this case was concentrating on PSE with a lot of team work. The children were shown all muddy and wet, lighting fires and cooking on them. Also shown about a secondary school too. Can be used in most circumstances. We were given the opportunity to apply for training. In fact I have the brochure, hold on.

I've been looking at this site

yes, there are nursery schools involved. There are acouple of organisations involved in the UK. I think it looks great. The training, beyond the most basic levels is quite expensive,iirc.

Looks to be about £750 for a level 3
I have about £1500 for further training from a 'fund'

I'm in Scotland- so try this site too

for the Forest Education Initiative

Direct quote from the literature

There are a variety of user groups for Forest School including children from 3-18, those with additional support for learning, and young adults. Forest School offers an alternative way of teaching and learning in an outdoor context.

The speaker quoted around £900 to be accredited and said it was the equivalent of an A level standard of study.

If you look on that site I linked too - you can see the price

I was told NMV3 - so I guess it is the same type of course

lucky you, KM

You mean the funding?

I did a level 3 cert in First Line Management & it's connected with extending that

I'm thinking this would work very well with the eco-nursery I was planning

I'm sure it would!

I think I'm looking forward to it but I'm very down atm (cos my nana died)

sorry about your nan.

My dd's nursery school has a forest school. The course leader takes her and a few of her classmates to a wooded area on the school grounds. Not sure what she does, but it involves wellies, raincoats and sticks. She loves it.

Like the sound of that

(Thanks)

dd's school has forest school for reception and year 1. They go once a week to a patch of woodland in a forest. They get to know the area very well and balance along logs, or make shelters, or mud pies, or look at mini beasts etc.

Our primary school has forest school throughout all years and it is AWESOME. Much more child-led than teacher led.

School have said that it creates much better relationships with teachers (as the kids are outside the classroom and more relaxed and pally), gives them room for independent learning. They even learn about fire safety and how to use simple tools (with lots of supervision!) It sounds great.

That's really interesting

If I enjoy it I may go on to do the level 3

I'm getting quite excited about this

I love the idea, I might think about doing the course. We used to have a forest school here, it was called Country School, it closed before DD was old enough to go {sad]