What happens at Forest School?

Below is an account from a child's perspective of a day in our forest school.

 

"When it is a day that we go to Forest School, we can come to school in different clothes. We normally wear something that covers our arms and our legs to help protect our skin in case we brush past a stinging nettle or come upon any insects.

We take our bottles of water to the Forest school and we sit down around by the camp fire on wooden seats made out of logs. A head count is made before we leave and when we get to Forest school to make sure we are all together and we use our maths skills in adding numbers together, such as the number of children plus the number of adults equals the total number in Forest School.

The Forest School teachers tell us about safety and rules to keep us safe that we all have to follow, which includes things like:-

• We must always step outside the camp fire circle. If we forget and step inside, everyone says Elephants! This reminds us that elephants never forget!
• It’s OK to play with sticks, just as long as they are no longer than arm’s length.
• If we want to locate someone in the forest, we shout ‘123 where are you?’ On hearing this, the response is ‘123 over here!’

 

We do all sorts of different learning activities in Forest School including things like:-

Exploring the area, playing in the mud kitchen or climbing trees to a safe height.

We also do a ‘Sit Spot’. This is where we find somewhere to sit quietly and observe the gentle noises of the Forest. We might also observe small creatures around us like rabbits or birds. We have equipment to store any bugs or anything of interest that we find in the Forest so we can observe it. We make things from what we find in the Forest. We play fun games and we sometimes have something cooked for us over the campfire.

Before we leave the Forest school, the teachers put out the camp fire with water and we leave Forest School as we find it and take anything we have made back to school to share with everyone."