Forest School is a unique method of outdoor learning.

At Egerton CEP School our aim is to encourage and inspire children through positive outdoor experiences. Children will have the opportunity to learn about the natural environment, how to handle risks and most importantly to use their own initiative to solve problems and co-operate with others. The children use full sized tools, play, learn boundaries of behaviour; both physical and social, establish and grow in confidence, self-esteem and become self-motivated.

We aim to give all children a collective insight into the ethos of Forest School.

Forest School builds on a child’s innate motivation and positive attitude to learning, offering them the opportunities to take risks, make choices and initiate learning for themselves.

The Forest school learning environment provides opportunities for children to develop self-esteem, self-confidence, to form positive relationships with others, to develop a growing awareness of their emotional needs and the needs of others, to learn to co-operate and work with their peers and adults and to develop strategies in order to take risks within the boundaries of safety.

Forest School is about exploring and experiencing the natural world through practical activities. The children go out in all weathers, all year round, exploring and learning from the seasons and environment changes. Appropriate clothing is worn, however, during high winds it is considered unsafe to go into the woods.

The children’s interests, along with the varied natural resources in our woodland, are used to stimulate creative thinking, problem solving and skill development. One of the principles of Forest School is to promote environmental awareness and encourage sustainability.

The children are taught respect and responsibility for the world around them. Both the children and adults are encouraged to respect their environment and to be aware of conservation issues of the wild area in our locality.  The aim is to promote respect for wildlife. This is achieved through detailed session plans, evaluation and careful reference to our Woodland Management Plan and Ecological Impact Assessment.

If appropriate, reclaimed, recycled and sustainable resources are used to maintain and develop our forest school site. Encouraging children to care for the environment is an essential part of Forest School. In order to encourage the children to look after the site we will always leave it tidy and never damage anything growing in it. We will only collect things that are on the ground and leave the area as we found it when we leave. The Forest School Leader will monitor the site so that it does not become overused.

The success of forest school allows the children to:

• Grow in confidence as a result of the freedom, time and space they are given during their learning. This allows them to demonstrate independence.

• Develop team work, strengthen their bonds and social skills through activities such as sharing tools and participating in play as a group. 

• Increase their vocabulary. The sensory experiences provided by Forest School helps prompt language development.

• Improve their communication skills, which also has a positive effect on their self-esteem.

• Have high levels of interest, which leads to high levels of attention.  Spending time in the woodland is exciting for a child. It tends to fascinate them which develops a strong will to participate and concentrate over long periods of time.

• Develop physical stamina and improve gross and fine motor skills as well as mental health.  

• Inspires children to gain a love of the outdoors, which encourages them to want to visit local woodlands more frequently and participate in general outdoor activities as they get older.

Genesis 2:15 Good News Translation (GNT) of the Bible

“Then the Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and guard it.”

Forest school activities

Because forest school learning is child-directed, the scope of the activities that can take place is enormous. Typical activities include:

• Sensory walks
• Foraging
• Shelter building
• Mini beast hunts
• Tree climbing
• Campfire cooking
• Woodwork
• Nature art
• Games like Hide and Seek
• Fire building and lighting
• Puddle and mud jumping

Keeping children safe
The idea of letting young children experiment with knives and fire might sound scary, but safety is paramount during forest school sessions.  Our leaders have a Level 3 Forest School qualification, which covers essential safety training such as risk assessment and food hygiene.

Although children are encouraged to assess risk for themselves, this is always with close adult guidance. Before an activity, they will sit in a circle and talk about how the children think they can stay safe.  Our forest school leaders do a lot of safety talks before they use any tools, and supervision is tight, with adults observing each child and tailoring the activity to their own ability.  Staffing levels are high, for some activities, children are even supervised one-to-one.