Forest school age 4-5

[ibis17]

Has anyone tried Forest School? What are your experiences?

I’m interested in sending my daughter as an alternative to the first year of primary. I love the idea of home schooling, but I need to work at least 2.5 days a week (can’t do evenings for various reasons) and we can’t afford to pay for private education. The primaries near us are enormous and I personally don’t feel any pressure to start school as young as 4 (absolutely accept this is just how I feel!) We have lots of friends in the US who aren’t starting their kids in school at 4.

There are 3 Forest schools near us that accept 30 hours free childcare until 5 anc as our daughters birthday is late in the academic year, this would cover her almost to year 1. Our thought is she could be with peers (and away from parents!) 2.5 days a week, but then free for family time 4.5 days. We go away a lot so could keep doing this. I’m a teacher and have a fairly sound knowledge of KS1 curriculum so am confident we could help her keep up with her peers in school.

however, I don’t know much about Forest school other than seeing the children out and about when I’m walking.

Wow, three forest schools nearby. That's great! Where I live they are less common. I know that some home ed parents would love to be able to use them.

The only possible hitch I can see with your plan is that if you are planning to use school afterward, you can only defer school entry until the start of summer term in Reception even if the child is summer born. Obviously you can wait as long as you want before starting your child at school, and you do get the free nursery hours until they reach CSA, but the school can't hold the place until Y1. That means if your preferred school is oversubscribed, there's a risk you might have to send send your daughter elsewhere or carry on home educating her while waiting in hopes a place comes up at your preferred school.

By the way, another alternative could be a childminder, especially if you can find one who home educates. That's what I did with my eldest (at that time my only child) while I worked part-time. The CM took the kids to home ed activities, museums etc and my child played with her kids at her house. It worked really well for us. Some families are quite outdoorsy, so you might get some of the same benefits as with forest school. We spend much of our week at outdoor home ed activities such as bushcraft, sports, and park play, but you'd need to employ someone to take your child there and supervise her, because they are very rarely drop-off activities and some are only for a couple of hours at a time. I've seen people use au pairs for this occasionally, but you might need too many hours for an au pair and need a CM or nanny instead.

Saracen,

I’m so sorry! I somehow missed your reply! Thank you for all that info. A childminder is a good idea- although might be too expensive for us. The plus side of our area (north London) is lots of Forest Schools, the downside is not many childminders/ high prices. The FS accept free childcare hours until 5.

Really useful to knkw about the deferred entry - I had no idea how that works. Thank you so much!

When is your child's birthday? If it is after April, you could defer her start by a year to start at 5 instead. But you would need to ask in advance. Alternatively you could apply for a year 1 place once she is 5 but as PP said, you would have to see where had spaces. The forest school sounds great of you can support with phonics etc at home.

I deffered my now 8 year old, i would highly recommend that. That way she would not miss out on anything.

Any questions? Ask away