The Journey Begins

Welcome to new school year. This is Mama Beech, a huge a glorious mother tree that stands in the corner of Forest School on land next to our Primary School.

 We sit atop a hill and share our grounds with a Children's Centre and a Day Nursery, but have full access to 9 acres of field and a little woodland, as well as a huge mud kitchen area, some raised beds for gardening, and a good ol' school garden complete with concrete pond! 

 This year is THE year we start to make use of it to it's fullest.

 Mama Beech is huge, one day I will try and work out exactly how huge, and what her age is, meanwhile, she offers shelter, food, refuge and some evolving Autumnal colours to all manner of wildlife - including children!

 At the start of the academic year she was a marker for my introduction to the area, and a much needed beacon of how beautiful the school grounds are, as well as a constant reminder of how lucky we are to have such an amazing resource to hand.

 September weather brought winds to our plateau and a setback to our progress. Down came three of our four parachute canopies and limited the space where Forest School could be carried out.
It highlighted a few issues. The need to coppice and tidy some of the larger trees to allow access up them for repairs, the uselessness of the space once it was draped in a 20m circle of fabric, and urgency to prepare alternatives to tented basecamps for Forest School to thrive. There are a few solutions, from removing the canopy entirely, repairing, or replacing... and the replacements are varied too!

 Plans hatch and ferment. With all the wonderful space we have available we can focus on Outdoor Learning for the entire school. Forest School is important but only one aspect of taking learning outside. We have until the October school holiday to decide the direction we are going. We all have ideas. We all have preferences! Let's see where we can take this!

 Meanwhile, week 1 term 1, we are grateful for the sole canopy hanging high in the trees allowing a recognisable 'basecamp' for the children this year. So much is going to change and evolve... we're excited!
























































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