Forest School

" Forest School is an inspirational process, that offers ALL learners regular

opportunities to achieve and develop confidence and self-esteem through

hands-on learning experiences in a woodland or natural environment with trees." FSA website

What is Forest School?

The concept of Forest School in Britain is based on a Scandinavian idea that begun in the 1950’s which focused on children learning about the natural world from a very young age through activities based in the outdoor environment all year round.

This idea was brought to the UK in the mid 1990’s following a visit by nursery nurses and early years representatives to Denmark. They found the effects had a significant impact.on the children’s behaviour, confidence, concentration, self esteem and health . The idea was then developed in this country with many early years professionals, teachers and youth workers undergoing quality training and then reaping the benefits with their own children.

Who will supervise the children and where?

Forest School sessions are planned and led by 2 qualified level 3 Forest School leaders, who also hold the REC emergency first aid certificate, and will have carried out a full risk assessment of the site/activities/weather conditions. Along with the FS leader there will be an assistant who will be there to assist the leader and the children.

At Peter Pan Nursery, Mrs Johnson and Mrs Guy are our Forest school leaders. We use two areas on the common in the woodland around our nursery. The sessions last for 2.5 hours and will take place during the morning, with follow up activities at nursery. We also offer a parent and child ‘come play and cook your lunch session’ in the summer terms.

The Type of activities

All sessions have an invisible ‘structure’, Within this the children will engage in a group activity and this will then encourage them to move on to choose and play for themselves within the environment. Some activities might include: digging, mud & puddles, bug hunting, den building, treasure hunts, games, art and craft activities, using tools, using vegetable peeler's to make carvings, watching the adults cooking on a fire and the favorite toasting marshmallows.

The children will attend Forest School for the whole year thus allowing the children to experience all of the differing seasons enabling children to see and feel the changes each season brings.

We are so lucky that within our local environment we have ponds, trees, grass and sometimes we have visits from ducks, deer, squirrels and many different birds.

Forest school sessions take place at Peter Pan on a Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and a Friday. This does depend on the number of children who are eligible for Forest School that year. These sessions start in mid September through to the end of June. Each session will have up to 8 children and 2 adults. There will be an extra charge for these sessions.

For more information about Forest School visit The Forest School Association Website FSA. http://www.forestschoolassociation.org/

On the FSA website you can read about the 6 leading principles for good Forest School practice.

http://www.forestschoolassociation.org/full-principles-and-criteria-for-good-practice/

You can also see the benefits of forest school from this link:

A marvellous opportunity to learn (PDF)

https://forestschoolday.org/

https://app.xtensio.com/ynj4kxsq