Forest nursery - normal for there to be no theme or topic?

[Lucky457]

My three year old has been going to forest nursery and there doesn’t appear to be much in the way of structure for the week and I’m wondering if that’s the norm? Some of my friends children go to nursery (not forest) and it seems there’s a theme or a topic each week and there’s activities set up around that, such as senses or the zoo. At my little girl’s nursery they let the children pull out any toys they like for 20 minutes, like train tracks, then they open the doors and the children go outside but there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of adult led activities or themed learning set up. The indoor space is very small but the outdoor space is obviously big and well developed. They’ve had campfires where the children have been involved with helping with the cooking but no topics of the week like ‘flowers’ or ‘insects’ or ‘senses’. Just feels a bit like they’re missing a trick maybe? There’s no mention of any set ups or activities or themes in the newsletter each week and my daughter is always telling me what she’s done (mainly playing in the mud kitchen) so I don’t think that it’s something that’s happening and I don’t realise. My daughter is happy there which is the main thing, but I was curious whether other forest nurseries do any themed learning or if it’s the norm to just let the children go outside and play with what’s out there.

I don't think themes/topics are seen as good practice anymore, I think early years settings are encouraged to follow the children's interests.
If your child is happy and busy they will be learning naturally through their own exploring and the interactions with the children and adults around them.

Sounds normal. All 3 of mine went to forest nursery and there was never a theme, always child led and the staff worked with whatever the children were interested in doing on that day.

Under 6s should just be able to play. A child's work is play and they don't need an adult's help to do what comes naturally.

One thing I always enjoyed about being a nanny is that there are no silly topics to follow! Your little girl will be using all her senses at forest school anyway - smelling the flowers, feeling the mud, hearing the leaves, tasting the woodlice (half joking!) all of that. There doesn't need to be a 'topic' labelled 'senses' where they sit there and are told what to hear/taste/feel/smell.

I've never known a nursery where the topics each week were a major part of what the kids were doing. It's usually just something they discuss at circle time in the morning and a prompt for more creative play if the children want it. The nurseries that do have tuff trays or skills based set activities available just use the theme to make it slightly different than last week (eg draw a face one week, colour a hedgehog another etc).

They still do 99% child led non-theme activities for most of the day.

I agree with the other responses to a degree. Yes, the EYFS encourages staff to develop whatever the child(ren) are interested in, but there is also a responsibility on the staff to guide and ensure the children's worlds are expanded. That takes planning. Things should change, and new resources and activities should be introduced to stimulate the children's minds, interests, and exploratory play.

It’s called child led and allowing children to free flow without a lot of structure

The nursery my child goes to uses something called "planning in the moment" to use child led interests to develop their learning rather following a specific idea each week. I was initially a little sceptical but it seems to work well

I like the sound of a mud kitchen!

Nurseries used themes and topics about 20 years ago. It's not been seen as best practice to do this for a very long time.

Learning should be child led, the staff are skillful enough to weave what they want the child to learn around what the child is currently interested in.

If a child is interested in cars at the moment and you try to get them to do loads of activities based around butterflies, they will not be interested, won't engage or learn anything.