F💚REST SCH💚💚L L💚VE

I think I need to list all that's going on! It's the only way I am going to keep track!
  • Our RHS Garden Gang has made it to the School Garden Level 3 with help from our Eco club that gives up some of their lunch time on a Tuesday and our Monday afternoon Gardening Gang. Between them all the poly tunnel is brimming with seeds beginning to burst into tiny seedlings
  • Our RSPB Big School Birdwatch results are heading into cyberspace. The feeders are clean and full, the bird boxes have twigs and grasses near by to aid nest building, and access to clean water is solved!
  • We have made our very first bat box! We need lots more - and then a very, VERY long ladder... There is an area perfect for a bats that we'd like to enhance
  • The Junior Forester Groups are awaiting the delivery of the Woodland Trust trees next month so they can experience planting trees along with planting seeds and willow whips
  • Our Year 1 Forest Schoolers had their very first Forest School Campfire. They had stories around the crackling Flames in the run up to Christmas, but this time they got to toast some marshmallows too! I swear the staff have more fun than the kids!













  • Year 3 and 4 finished their six sessions of Winter Forest School and got to help create the campfire... on the understanding that they too could have mallows!
  • The overhang of Storm Ciara meant it was still windy on Monday - but luckily after the visit from the Tree Surgeons the gusts last weekend did little damage. In fact Year 5 helped to collect up lots of fallen twigs for Year 2 to use in making mobiles! 
  • Year 5 have also helped dig in some post to refresh the Wildlife Garden. We have plans to make this quiet area a reflective space

  • The wooden roundhouse is complete and the outdoor classroom is ready for use! The wildlife garden it is set in is a work in progress and always will be. Hopefully as Spring takes over from winter it will bloom in all different kinds of ways



  • Here comes the February holiday! I think we all need a rest! We're hoping to be ready for the tree planting next term, and creating a new hedge, for transferring seedlings, for protecting the wildflowers and bulbs that are starting to grow, and for all the prep work for Outdoor Classroom Day, The Great Litter Pick, and a Wildlife Week, all before the end of term!
I'm off to enjoy a good book by a beach!

And of course if anyone wants to join in the journey we have teamed up with www.fsli.co.uk to host Forest School Level 3 Training - check out the Canterbury Venue on their website and you could get to have a cuppa in the new outdoor classroom!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Indoor Forest School

Image
On rare occasions, we need to cover a Forest School session INSIDE. It may be because the weather prevents a session, it may be a staffing issue, it may be an introduction for children who will find the outdoors challenging, but whatever causes it, there are times when setting up activities in a classroom is suddenly needed. I've said before that I have a large IKEA blue bag that I keep certain activities in, these are not necessarily ones I can/will use in Forest School, like jigsaw puzzles, colouring, cutting out, etc. It's fairly quick to add some of the nature table items, bug ID, and bird guides, etc. into the bag to make what is basically 'nature learning' feel a little like Indoor Forest School! One week in December started with me under the duvet with a fever and headache, and a PCR test pending. School canceled Forest School because waiting each day to decide what the following day's timetable would be was too hectic. So once back in on the Wednesday indoor...
Read more

Stormy weather

Image
At the risk of sounding even older than I actually am "We have way more storms than we uses to"! Which may or may not be statistically true, but definitely a lot more have impacted our Forest School since 2021 than before. (Red sky in the morning, shepherd's warning!) Often, these charge in overnight or at weekends leaving me tip-toeing onto site to see what damage has been done. Frequently they gather pace at 4pm leaving the school day clear for sessions, and sometimes, the gods are smiling and they blow themselves out in the morning before the first class is due on site! They always make their mark though. Torn parachutes, flapping tarps, tree debris everywhere, litter blown in, on one occasion a 6ft trampolines rolling across the school. Field... There's the risk assessment required to ensure the site is fit for use, and damage to manage or remove. We're never totally unscathed! Sitting on a plateau at the edge of the South Downs doesn't help. The wind rush...
Read more

Outdoor Learning

Image
In my own head, I separate Outdoor Learning and Forest School.  They are interconnected but to me, FS offers activities and supports what the children choose to do, whereas OL has learning intentions and aimed-for outcomes. Year 3 are currently looking at the Stone Age as a theme, and I was asked if I would provide activities to support this. In doing so I would have to remove the children's usual choice, their opportunity to follow their own interests & learning outside, and the ability to respond to what they discover and expand on it. This isn't a 'bad' or 'wrong' thing, but it isn't Forest School. Hence approaching it with a different ethos. In giving 21st Century children a tiny taste of life over two million years ago the week began with a definite learning intention. I went with 6 activities that every child could try on rotation. They would end up with perhaps 10 minutes at each exercise in life long ago, after a chat at basecamp that explained w...
Read more