What’s Forest School All About?
Developing Resilient Kids with Forest School
Forest School began in Scandinavia – “Friluftsliv”, translates as Outdoor Life. It allows children to learn in a practical, hands-on natural environment. It doesn’t need to be in a forest – any outdoor space lends itself to Forest Schools.
Introduced to the UK in 1993, Forest School has gone from strength to strength. It is no longer seen as ‘alternative’ learning, but as a credible means to support the intellectual and emotional development of children and young people.
In today’s challenging times, never has it been more important to support our children and young people to develop resilience and the skills needed to deal with an ever changing world. Studies show the importance of our connection to nature, and its positive effect on our wellbeing and how it helps to reduce stress.
Forest Schools help develop emotional intelligence, build resilience and learn how to assess risks, in a supportive, non-judgmental environment. All activities are child-led, there is something for everyone from making mudpies, scavenger hunts, bushcraft and campfires!
“And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.” – Billy and The Minpins, Roald Dahl
What is the ethos of Forest School?
The ethos of Forest School is to provide the freedom for children and young people to investigate and explore their instinctive curiosity through the natural environment around them.
Forest School is all about getting outside and having the opportunity to safely assess risk, make choices and to arouse their curiosity in the natural world. In contrast to traditional school methods, learning is child-led, and activities are practical, helping children to understand and appreciate nature.
Consistency is important to the effectiveness of Forest School, regular hands-on learning sessions bring greater benefits, developing self-confidence and self-esteem.
What Are the Benefits of Forest School?
Evidence shows that Forest School has a positive impact not only on pro-environmental behaviours but also on wellbeing and educational behaviours of children. In these trying times, social and emotional skills are key to wellbeing. Forest School provides the opportunity for children and young adults to develop a connection to nature.
Natural Connections, a four-year project, looking at ways to deliver outdoor learning in schools was delivered by Plymouth University to 125 primary and secondary schools, demonstrated the following benefits:
Makes lessons more enjoyable (95%)
Improves social skills (93%)
Improves pupils’ health and wellbeing (92%)
Engages pupils with learning (92%)
Has a positive impact on behaviour (85%)
Leads to greater understanding of nature (94%)
(Source: https://naturalengland.blog.gov.uk/2016/07/21/busting-the-myths-on-outdoor-learning-in-schools/)
Having access to regular Forest School sessions provides children with the opportunity to develop a more in-depth understanding of how things work, and how their behaviour influences outcomes.
The hands-on style of learning not only improves co-operation and communication skills but also promotes an awareness of others and the environment. Children can immediately see and be proud of the results of their work and thus benefit from an increase in self-esteem.
What do you learn in a Forest School?
Forest School provides an opportunity for children to learn at their own pace. The focus is very much child-led. A range of activities, in the form of experiences and opportunities, are provided for the children, who follow their own individual path to understanding a problem and finding a solution. Children learn to think creatively and gain a deeper understanding of how to overcome obstacles. Forest School leaders observe the children’s’ preferences and development and follow what the children want to do.
Isn’t Forest School just an extra-curricular activity like Scouts?
Outdoor learning is often seen as an extra-curricular activity and used as an end of term award. However, all the core activities can be linked to a wide range of subjects - in the Natural Connections Project over 90% of schools found it useful for delivering the standard curriculum.
Learning isn’t about being confined to a classroom. Make maths fun with nature –
Forest School Maths’ Activity - Outdoor Magic Number Square
Bring all subjects to life using nature – children can use nature to develop hands-on problem-solving skills for number puzzles.
By using scavenged items to represent values, they have the freedom to explore creative ways to manipulate numbers to solve the problems. No red pens, no rubbing out – simply practising a trial and error approach to find a solution.
EcoActive offers Forest School sessions covering a range of activities, including –
building campfires
campfire cooking
learning bushcraft skills
building hammocks and rope swings
exploring the outdoor space through games or challenges
learning about local habitats
pond dipping
climbing trees and test the benefits of taking risk within a safe environment
lots of time for essential free play
What do you need to run a Forest School?
A lot of fresh air, a big dollop of fun and lots of twigs and leaves!
Running a Forest School doesn’t need to be complicated and bound up in red tape, neither does it need to be done in a Forest. The original Scandinavian concept ‘Friluftsliv’ simply means ‘Outdoor Life’. Forest School can be run in a park, a playground in fact in any outdoor space!
With Forest School ‘how’ is more important than ‘what’. Activities act as a catalyst encouraging the children to direct their own learning. Leaders observe how the children react to the problems posed to them by the activities. Children are not told what to do, to solve a problem, but are encouraged to look at how they could solve a problem.
There are lots of useful lesson plan resources freely available here.
What support is available for schools to run Forest School?
EcoActive provides full support to schools to deliver Forest School. The program delivers 12 sessions to groups of 15 children. We work with teachers, to ensure that the children benefit from both the group dynamics and the sessions. The same team delivers all the sessions, ensuring that the children develop together in a cohesive, stable and supportive environment.
Administrative support is also provided by EcoActive, risk assessment templates are available, and lesson plans provided.
“In Scotland, there’s no such thing as bad weather, only the wrong clothes.” – Billy Connolly
