What is Forest School?
The Forest School Association define it as: ‘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.
What happens during a Forest School Session?
Here at Senacre Wood Primary School, Mrs Reeves leads weekly sessions with one class per term, with each session lasting 2.5 hours. In that time, there are activities available for the children to attempt, if they so wish, or they are free to explore their own particular interests that day. Such interests might involve working as a team, creating a game, building shelters, climbing trees, swinging on the rope swings, using tools, cooking on the fire, playing in the mud kitchen or imaginative role play – or several of those! There is great opportunity for discussion and new learning in every session.
At the beginning of each session, everyone gathers at the entrance to the forest area and we recap the rules of the woods. Mrs Reeves then shares the activities that she has brought along and invites the children to share what they would like to do. The rest of the time is free for the children to fill as they wish - and there is rarely a dull moment. At the end, everyone gathers once more to reflect on what they have enjoyed the most and what they might like to explore the following week. Finally, we all take a moment of mindfulness to listen to what is around us and make us calm to return to school.
Forest School takes place every Tuesday and each class (from Years 1-6) have a term each. A letter, outlining what your child needs and which session they are in, will be sent out the term prior to them starting.
Term 1 - Year 3
Term 2 - Year 6
Term 3 - Year 5
Term 4 - Year 4
Term 5 - Year 2
Term 6 - Year 1
Session 1: 10th September
Forest School had a bit of a makeover over the summer with a big tidy up and some lovely new equipment added - a huge thank you to the PTA for supplying it.
Year 3 enjoyed a tour of the new areas and a reminder of the Forest School rules before heading off to freely explore the site.
The new mud kitchen was especially popular and a vast array of delicious treats were served via the café - from cakes to cappuccinos!
Children listened carefully and respected the rules for the new slack line, enjoying taking turns to see how fast they could cross it.
There have been some lovely examples of turn-taking and helping each other out - I’m excited to see what the children explore over the coming weeks.
This week, the children made good use of all the space available and explored everything the wood has to offer.
Some children worked together to build a base and then used it to play some team games. Others got stuck in with the mud and the mud kitchen - we enjoyed some delicious creations from the café!
Mrs Reeves hung up the new hammock today and the children were very respectful of the ‘no shoes’ rule. It is a space to use for quiet reflection and lots of the group enjoyed taking time out from running around to enjoy the gentle swinging.
Week 3 was a whole-class session so the woods were a hive of activity!
Last week the children requested s’mores, so that was our main focus today. Each child had a turn at roasting their marshmallows on the fire, remembering that we should be on one knee to ensure we are all safe (the respect position). We talked about how the glowing embers are the best part of the fire to cook on and how we need to always watch the marshmallows to make sure they don’t catch light or melt into the flames. Finally we squashed them between two chocolate biscuits and devoured them - yum!
After all the recent rain, there was plenty of mud available to explore and enjoy. The mud kitchen was very popular, as was jumping in muddy puddles!
Mrs Reeves moved the support line of the slack line to a higher level to give the children an extra challenge (it’s much more wobbly!).
We have had a fantastic day with lots of learning and discovering. There has been teamwork, role play, exploratory play, mud, mushrooms and even a dead owl.
Mrs Reeves made a spider web from sticks and wool, and lots of the children were keen to make their own to take home. They had to find 3 sticks that were similar and then wrap the wool round to make the web.
The muddy puddle provided a huge amount of fun today as children explored its texture and found how far they could splash it when jumping in. Some children even rolled a tyre into it and made a ‘hot tub’! Mrs Reeves didn’t fancy a dip.
The mud kitchen was busy as usual and we had an array of delicious treats on offer - anyone fancy chestnut soup?
Perhaps our biggest learning opportunity today was the sad discovery of a deceased tawny owl on the school field. Lots of the children wanted to see it and asked some fantastic questions about what type of owl it was, how it might have died, how it got to the school field and if it was an adult or juvenile. We talked about the noise tawny owls make (twit-twoo), how well camouflaged they are and how unusual it is to find one - dead or alive. We looked at its beautiful feathers and its talons and respected it as we would any living thing.