The Curriculum Leader for Forest School is: Mr J Terrett
Intent
At The Redstart Primary School we believe it is vital to develop children’s education in the widest possible way. As well as teaching academic subjects, we believe it is our responsibility to build the resilience, independence and social skills of the children. Forest School can play an important role in developing all aspects of a child.
Forest School gives the children an opportunity to spend a day outdoors learning in a completely different way to the conventional classroom model.
Through Forest School activities children benefit in many ways:
Respect for the environment – All our activities are based outside and we work with the natural resources around us. By noticing and using the environment children learn to appreciate and respect it.
Physical health – Fresh air and physical activity make for a healthy body which helps everyone learn.
Self esteem – The structured approach to tasks and the emphasis on setting children up to succeed raises self esteem – children who struggle in the confines of the classroom will often thrive outside and therefore they will have higher self esteem.
Social skills – Children learn to be more cooperative and to respect each other. They learn that different people have different sets of skills and approach things in different ways – there is often no right or wrong way.
Problem-solving – Many of the activities require the children to think about how they can get a task done.
Independence – Although always offered assistance, children will be left to try and achieve and complete tasks in small groups developing their independence.
Implementation
At Redstart, each child from Years 1 to 6 has one day a fortnight out of their classroom working in the school grounds with a Level 3-trained Forest School teacher and a variety of other adult helpers. Whilst outside the children are involved in a diverse range of activities including:
- Team-building games;
- Trust-building activities;
- Safe construction, lighting and use of fire, Preparing and cooking food on an open fire;
- Use of cutting tools such as secateurs, loppers, bow-saw, knife and axe;
- Ground maintenance projects such as planting and staking trees, clearing nettles and brambles from pond and garden areas, keeping paths in good order, hedge laying;
- Use of knots;
- Gardening projects including preparing soil, planting, growing, harvesting and eating;
- Construction projects such as making stars, stick and leaf mobiles, fence building, labyrinth construction, birdhouses, etc;
- Creative art activities such as sketching, sculpture with natural materials found on site;
- Creating shelters with a range of materials from putting up tents to using tarpaulins and ropes;
- Solving problems in maths using a kinaesthetic approach in an outdoor context.
- Playing – the role of play in the development of children cannot be over-emphasised. In an increasingly electronic age, it is particularly important that we encourage outdoor play.
Impact
The impact of Forest School at Redstart is seen in a number of ways.
- We believe that Forest School can, and does, have a positive impact on children’s independence and self-esteem. It develops their confidence to enjoy the outdoor environment and to interact with their peers in a number of different situations. This includes being able to complete a task independently, to work with a variety of partners and to work in small groups and larger groups and as a whole class. Certain children struggle with these aspects of life.
- We routinely observe children’s progress at Forest School and have a Forest School token system is in place to acknowledge children’s contributions through the day.
- There is no ‘at age-related expectations’ (ARE) in shelter-building or teamwork and we do not believe there should be. Competency is the aim, and Forest School believes that ‘good enough is good enough’. If a team has put up a shelter and the shelter stays up, that is a notable achievement, regardless of whether the knots are perfect or the location the best possible choice. However, as the children progress through the school, we expect that the shelters will look increasingly robust, that they will be built with increased levels of independence, and that the knots will start to take on a professional look.
- Many FS activities complement the aims of the National Curriculum. Our team work emphasis, our insistence that children treat each other with respect and courtesy, and our work on building self-esteem all match the aims of PSHE. We work closely with the design and technology coordinator and have established that the use of tools in Forest School and our constructing of various items complements a significant part of D&T objectives. A similar discussion with the science coordinator shows that many science objectives are complemented by Forest School.
