What is Forest School?
What is our vision for Forest School at St Andrew’s?
What is the role of play and choice in Forest School?
What are the rules of Forest School?
What are the behaviour expectations at Forest School?
What do we do at Forest School?
What are the routines at Forest School?
What are the benefits of Forest School?
What is Forest School?
The Forest School approach to outdoor learning encourages children to become
independent, use their imagination, take appropriate risks within boundaries and initiate
learning for themselves. Forest School is a holistic approach to learning, incorporating
children’s individuality and develops their skills for lifelong learning.
It can cover many areas of learning, including the emotional and spiritual aspects of learning where self-esteem and self-confidence can grow and positive relationships with peers can be formed. Forest School explores the outdoors and the natural environment with practical, useful activities all year round. It develops peer learning with the adults providing support and enabling activities to take place. The child’s interest will be at the heart of any activity.
‘Forest School is a child-centred inspirational learning process, that offers opportunities for holistic growth through regular sessions. It is a long-term program that supports play, exploration and supported risk taking. It develops confidence and self-esteem through learner inspired, hands-on experiences in a natural setting.’
Forest School Association Website, 2023
What is our vision for Forest School at St Andrew’s?
Forest School has six core principles, this is how we plan to implement it at St Andrew’s:
- Forest School is a long-term process of regular sessions, rather than one-off or infrequent visits; the cycle of planning, observation, adaptation and review links each session. At St Andrew’s we are going to start our Forest School journey by offering weekly sessions to Reception and Year 1. Over time, we hope to introduce Forest School sessions across the whole school. We will start our sessions with a hook for the children to explore and develop their understanding of the outdoor environment. Planning will then take place weekly and will be based on the children’s ideas and interests.
- Forest School takes place in a woodland or natural environment to support the development of a lifelong relationship between the learner and the natural world. At St Andrew’s we have a woodland area onsite, adjacent to the EYFS outdoor area. This site has previously been used for Forest School many years ago but has had little use recently. We will be working closely with the children to think about how we could improve/develop our area whilst maintaining and ensuring we have little ecological impact on the site itself. We aim to use natural resources within the site area that are sustainable and manageable.
- Forest School uses a range of learner-centred processes to create a community for being, development and learning. At St Andrew’s our Forest School will consist of a play based approach using ideas from the children to support planning and resourcing of the area. The Forest School leader will ensure all planning/resources are ready and up to date and support the children in developing their ideas.
- Forest School aims to promote the holistic development of all involved, fostering resilient, confident, independent and creative learners. At St Andrew’s our Forest School will aim to promote the physical, social, emotional, cognitive, spiritual and linguistic skills of the child.
- Forest School offers learners the opportunity to take supported risks appropriate to the environment and to themselves. At St Andrew’s our Forest School will promote the understanding of risks in a safe and manageable way so children feel they are able and willing to take the appropriate risks when they want or need to.
- Forest School is run by qualified Forest School practitioners, who continuously maintain and develop their professional practice. At St Andrew’s, Amanda Cossins is currently training for the Forest School level 3 qualification. She is outdoor emergency first aid trained and this handbook provides all the relevant policies and procedures to safely run a forest School session.
At St Andrew’s Primary School, through our Forest School sessions, we hope to encourage independent, enthusiastic and creative learners who develop holistically through a well- planned and engaging child-centred approach.
Threaded through all we do at St Andrews are our curriculum drivers, agreed collectively by our teaching team. These are COMMUNICATION, COMMUNITY and the ENVIRONMENT. These key drivers feel wholly appropriate for this period in our children’s lives. Through these drivers, our pupils will be able to Thrive, Learn and Shine.
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What is the role of play and choice in Forest School?
Child led play supports children to progress according to their own interests and level of learning. The child led learning approach supports the key feature of Forest School for pupils to become intrinsically motivated (and lead their own learning). When children play on their own terms they are more likely to stay engaged, focussed and motivated. This provides adults fantastic opportunities to facilitate learning and pupil progress. A key feature of Forest School is that sessions are based on adult observations of children playing and the reflective practice of the practitioner. Through observations adults can gauge pupil interests and level of learning. This enables the practitioner to scaffold learning for each pupil (Lev Vygotsky / Brunner) by combining pupil interests and their level of learning.
We believe that everyone, adults as well as children, should have regular access to woodland or another natural environment to provide them with outdoor learning activities through play and exploration. Forest School provides a learner-centred approach, where
children (and adults!) can learn through self-directed play and exploration on a regular basis.
A wide variety of activities will be available during sessions, and will vary according to the age, ability and experience of the participants. These may include:
- Using tools safely
- Den building
- Rope work
- Fire lighting and cooking
- Natural crafts
- Playing games
- Exploring the woodland
- Sharing songs and stories
Play is of vital importance for natural child development, and Forest School provides an ideal
environment for purely child-led play. Children will have the freedom to choose which activities they take part in, and if they come up with their own activities then that is even better! Adults attending and supporting must understand the importance of choice in play, and allow the children this freedom. ALL adults supporting any sessions need to have read the St Andrew’s Forest School handbook which is available to them prior to the session.
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What are the rules of Forest School?
It is important when attending Forest School sessions that we agree rules to follow to ensure our safety as a community and to show respect to our environment. There are three main principles to follow to ensure a great session, with some example rules to support them:
1. Look after ourselves
- Stay within the boundary
- Only enter the fire circle with permission
- Do not eat anything without asking an adult
- Do not put fingers or anything else in your mouth
2. Look after each other
- Drag sticks longer than your arm span, or ask a partner to help
- Do not throw anything without asking an adult
3. Look after the woodland environment
- Take care when handling any creatures
- Put creatures back where they were found
- Do not pick anything without asking an adult
- Stick to woodland paths
These rules will be recapped at the beginning of every session, and ways in which to follow the rules will be agreed upon in discussion, with suggestions from the Forest School leader if needed.
It is important that all of the adults present help the children to understand and follow the rules, to ensure the safety of all. Modelling of the rules by all adults is expected.
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What are the behaviour expectations at Forest School?
We accept that feelings and emotions will affect behaviour during Forest School and we will work to help learners understand, celebrate and manage those feelings as appropriate to themselves and others. We understand that there are a number of key influences that could potentially affect the behaviour (positively or negatively) of all participants at Forest School. There are many techniques, practices and strategies that can encourage and maintain
appropriate conduct at Forest School. This can include specific interventions such as diversion, de-escalation and positive handling. Behaviour during sessions will be observed and reflected upon within the sessions, dealing with incidents as they occur.
The Forest School leader will take the behaviour of a group and/or individuals into account when planning activities and only continue if the group or individual is deemed to be displaying safe behaviour.The Forest School leader will follow the school’s Behaviour Policy, however if the behaviour of an individual, or group of individuals is such that it puts their own and others safety at risk then the individual(s) may be required to return to the school building with an accompanying adult. This will be at the discretion of the Forest School leader.
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What do we do at Forest School?
Forest School allows children to be a part of a variety of outdoor activities and encourages children to learn about the natural environment as well as developing key social and emotional skills. Some of the activities the children will be a part of are:
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- Den building
- Use and practice a variety of knots
- Safe use of fire lighting and cooking
- The identification of plants and animals
- Exploration of the natural world
- How to look after the natural world
- Use of sustainable resources within the Forest School
- Safe use of tools to support learning
- Different seasons/what happens in each season
- Developing key social and emotional skills; e.g. spiritual development, health and wellbeing
- Playing in the outdoors
- Taking risks in a safe way
- Building relationships/supporting each other
- Achieving manageable tasks individually and in a group
What are the routines at Forest School?
Forest School will run on a weekly basis with our Reception and Year 1 children (we are hoping to open it up to other classes later in the year).
Procedures to be carried out before each session:
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- A thorough sweep of the site will be done before each session to check for any litter, glass, animal faeces, etc. Any such items should be collected using plastic bags and disposable gloves.
- A written record will be kept of each sweep. This should state if any hazards were found and how they were dealt with.
- Trees will be checked for any broken or dead branches which may fall.
- A check will be made of the weather conditions, and the short term forecast. If it is unduly windy, or a thunder storm has commenced or is imminent then it will not be advisable to carry out a Forest School session.
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Procedures to be carried out during each session:
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- Each child will be required to dress themselves appropriately for the weather.
- Put on protective clothing and footwear as needed.
- Discuss any safety issues of the day
- Sit down on benches/stumps at base camp; discuss rules and any safety issues
again. It is advisable to walk the boundary for at least the first session, possibly more dependent on the age and Forest School experience of the children. - Learning for the session introduced. This learning can range from simple team
building activities to den building or fire lighting (fire lighting is dependent on age and maturity of the children). - The children will then have an opportunity to play in the Forest School area and take part in a structured activity if they wish.
- The children will be required to care and maintain the area with support, as well as ensuring they are maintaining and using equipment in a safe way.
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Procedures to be carried out at the end of each session:
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- Discuss the session with children, allow the children to choose to give feedback.
- Clear everything away.
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What are the benefits of Forest School?
Forest School provides a huge range of benefits to those who attend. Some examples include:
- Increased self-confidence – developed by children having the freedom, time and space to learn and demonstrate independence. Children develop their confidence as they solve problems, and play with creativity and imagination. This confidence is likely to be taken with them into other areas of their lives. Spending time with the same community builds self confidence.
- Social skills – play leads to improvements in communication, team building and
language skills. Children will have increased awareness of the consequences of their
actions on peers through team activities such as sharing tools. - Improved Language and Communication – language development, including emotional vocabulary, prompted by the children’s sensory experiences and interactions with others.
- Increased Motivation and Concentration – developing a keenness to participate and the ability to concentrate over longer periods of time.
- Increased Self-esteem – fostering and celebrating skill sets, other than academics.
- Improved Physical skills – Forest School gives children space and freedom to play and develops their gross and fine motor skills. They have the opportunity to run, balance, climb and jump: improving spatial awareness, physical strength, stamina and personal resilience.
- Increased Knowledge and Understanding – developing an interest in natural surroundings and a respect for the environment.
- Improved Behaviour – improved relationship with staff and peers. A sense of freedom with clear boundaries in place. Emotional and spiritual development
- Improved mental health – spending time outdoors, especially in woodlands, reduces cortisol levels in the brain, lowering stress and calming the whole person. This also makes learning easier.
- Ability to assess risk – children learn about taking and assessing risks. Studies have shown that children who are exposed to appropriate risks at a young age are less likely to take inappropriate risks as they get older.