Nene Valley Festival event

As probably the smallest organisation involved as a 2015 Nene Valley Festival event, we were a little surprised when the free tickets for the Forest School taster sessions got beyond the 50 mark.

On the day we welcomed over 70 adults and children to our two Forest School taster sessions, with the purpose of introducing children and their parents to how Forest School helps to make people smile from the inside!

There’s a lot of confusion about what is and isn’t Forest School, some people thinking it’s about junior Bear Grylls or bushcraft for children. Some people haven’t any idea at all, which is why they came along.

So, for those of you who didn’t come along to the session I’m going to explain a bit more about the ethos that underpins Forest School. For those of you who did come along, you may have got the drift, but you’re bound to enjoy looking at the photos – are you in any of them?

What is Forest School?

The Forest School experience is one of activities being learner-led rather than leader-led. The Forest School leader’s role  is to make sure that what a child chooses to do is not putting themselves in a situation where the level of risk is beyond their ‘considered’ ability.

To this end, the first Forest School session is all about introducing the attendees to safety considerations, through playing of games, walking the boundary of the Forest School area etc.

The Forest School ethos has free play at its core, but there need to be accepted boundaries in respect of self and others.  Being provided with opportunities for free-play encourages development of physical, emotional and social skills, together with resilience, attention span and most importantly to my mind, creative thinking.

Children learning to manage risks

A woodland holds risks to personal safety at just about every step and children need to learn how to manage the risks to keep themselves safe. We have dozens of risk assessments written for all manner of activities from using a bow saw to serving a drink and snack!

Everyone loves a fire being lit at Forest School and our risk assessment for that activity runs to 6 pages. Funnily enough, we often find the children remember the fire protocols better than some of the adults and we encourage them to point out adult error when they see it (which they love of course). What we’re doing is encouraging the children to take responsibility for the safety of themselves and others in the group, which they usually take on board pretty quickly.

Accidents may happen, all the more likely in a wild wood environment where there are things to fall over, fall off, trip them up, poke them in the face, flick back from someone in front walking through. A woodland is a risky place to be – period. Parents need to appreciate this aspect and the fact whilst we can reduce levels of risk, we can’t remove them completely, nor would we wish to do so. Forest School is inherently about providing opportunities for taking of risks, in a risk-managed environment, for the purpose of holistic development.

Forest School hazard management

A brief overview of the process of managing risk by staff involved in Forest School includes:

• Identification of potential hazard
• Activation of control measures to lower levels of risk associated with the identified hazard
• Provision of adequate levels of supervision, related to age and cognitive ability.
• Emergency procedures in place, which all staff are familiar with

 The benefits of Forest School

Social interactions occur naturally at Forest School and friendships develop within the group, often to the benefit of children who lack status in other social/school situations. The environment at Forest School is one where scenarios are developed, by the Forest School Leader, so that everyone can ‘shine’ at something.

Outdoor Tribe and Forest School

Forest School sessions are run by Susan Collini, is a qualified Level 3 Forest School Leader having trained at Bishop’s Wood in Worcestershire. Susan is insured to deliver Forest School anywhere in the UK and holds Paediatric First Aid and Food Hygiene certificates.

There is a comprehensive operations handbook, including numerous policies, processes and emergency procedures to do with every aspect of running a Forest School, which any parent or carer is welcome to view.

Next Forest School sessions

There is a block of three sessions running in October 2015 on Sunday the 11th, 18th and 25th.

You can book your child onto these for £30 for the 3 sessions (reduction for siblings to £25). Register interest for the October Forest School sessions for children and we’ll get in touch with you.

If you would like details of further sessions then subscribe via the form in the sidebar and you’ll then receive notification as new sessions are published.