Forest School
Intent
At Burghill Community Academy we recognise the importance of outdoor learning and every year group from Muddy Boots through to Year 6 participates in regular Forest School sessions.
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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.
We aim to provide a wide variety of opportunities for learning such as as den/shelter building, sensory walks, mud exploration, foraging, using tools for a purpose, fire building, cooking on a campfire, creating natural transient art, outdoor role play, storytelling, imaginative games, learning about habitats and monitoring the wildlife within the area.
Implementation
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.
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The 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 those 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 environmental 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.
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The children are taught respect and responsibility for the world around them, their environment and the wildlife within it. This is achieved through carefully planned, evaluation and careful reference to our Woodland sessions led by our trained Forest School Lead.
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.
Impact
The success of forest school allows the children to:
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Grow in confidence as a result of the freedom, time and space they are given during their learning. This allows them to demonstrate independence.
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Develop team work, strengthen their bonds and social skills through activities such as sharing tools and participating in play as a group.
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Develop oracy. The experiences provided by Forest School helps prompt language development.
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Improve their communication skills, which also has a positive effect on their self-esteem.
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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.
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Develop physical stamina and improve gross and fine motor skills as well as mental health.
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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.
