Looking Forward to a New School Year

Possibly due to a background in Early Years Education, I have always championed outdoor learning. There is nothing you can teach inside that can't be moved outside. Even if it is simply taking clipboards onto a patch of grass and delivering the lesson that would have been in a classroom to pupils in the open air.

For instance, adapting your Autumn story-writing to include a walk in the woods so children HEAR the crunch of leaves, SEE the Autumn colours, SMELL the rain and mulch, TOUCH the shiny conkers, FEEL the breeze, WATCH their misted breath.... before asking them to write descriptive sentences, links indoor learning to outdoor. 

Growing food and plant life cycles are so much easier to teach, and to understand, when it's actually happening!

Basing a topic around a pond on school grounds, or local to the building, with daily visits and monitoring of wildlife, recording of changes, writing of poems, drawing from observation... is reliant on the outdoors
Whether including the outside, adapting inside lessons, or focusing on the outdoors, learning takes place everywhere, and children seem to respond positively when it takes place in the fresh air!

Forest School is one part of outdoor learning. Focusing on teamwork, developing managed risk, fostering self challenge, allowing problem solving, widening relationships, improving communication, enabling reflection, and focusing connection with nature and each other. It is child led, with minimal planning, and very open ended outcomes.
Along the way there will be skills and crafts, games and activities, and a lot of learning. But Forest School is not a 'subject', it is a means to help children develop skills they can transfer to all kinds of learning, and skills that will help them through life.

Taking learning outside may not be able to incorporate ALL the same aspects of education that Forest School sessions explore, but it can include many of them. If the children are well versed in Forest School they will bring their Forest School knowledge to whatever outdoor task they have.

Current times mean that only about a third of pupils are actually in school. Teachers are trying hard to set work for home learners that mirrors what 'Bubble' classes are doing in school. This is not easy, especially if it includes outside learning. We can never assume children at home have access to outdoor space. During lockdown when even fewer children were in school we tried to post daily activities on Facebook that encouraged interaction with nature, we aimed to ensure that these could be achieved via a walk in the park or down the street, in a garden, on a balcony, or while looking out the window! But again there are other barriers (shielding families, parents working from home) that could impact this.

Currently we are enrolled in the #30DaysWild challenge, posting at least one photo a day on Twitter, taken by the school or pupils or staff, in or out of school, but 'doing something wild'. 

This week an injured moth found in long grass turned a group of squealing 11 year old girls from "I hate moths!" to "I want a turn!" as they let it run over their hands and arms and they lamented on not knowing how to help it (note to self - find out how to repair moth wings!). Within 10 minutes the entire group had gone from disgust at it's huge body to admiring it's big eyes and furry behind! They also ensured they found a safe place to leave it.

We are hurtling towards July. 
I think we can all agree that 2020 has been an insane year. 
Pandemic. 
Lockdown. 
Schools open.
Social distancing. 
Schools taking in more children. 
Rules and regulations and ever changing guidance.... 
We were lucky enough to have the facilities to offer Forest School and allow space for outdoor learning too and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

(see previous blogs
https://mamabeech.blogspot.com/2020/06/forest-school-and-social-distancing.html
https://mamabeech.blogspot.com/2020/06/bubbles.html
https://mamabeech.blogspot.com/2020/06/quality-forest-school.html
if you want more details on how we got to this point!).

There is currently no definitive guidance for schools in September.
We are all aware that whatever paperwork arrives will probably change many times before children arrive for the start of Term 1/Autumn Term, and will continue to waiver throughout the school year. We decided long before the pandemic that we wanted to make use of our outdoor space more, to move some learning outside, and to extend Forest School as much as possible. 

Coronavirus has pushed that agenda forward and given staff the freedom to explore an outdoor curriculum and the actual grounds much more than this Summer-end of the term would normally allow, and hopefully when the 2020/2021 year starts all staff will have a better understanding on how to weave outdoor learning into their busy timetable rather than struggle to add it on as an extra.

Who knows what September will bring.
In all honesty, who knows what next week will bring?!

But if you are a Forest School attached to a school there is a lot you can offer to move education a little closer towards 'normal'.

If you are an Independent Forest School incorporate and advertise what you can offer to schools for moving forwards. Places with little space are struggling. Your expertise can help.

If you are a school - look to Forest School and work together to deliver a safer, diverse, curriculum that will help teach children how to learn.

Outside Learning is no longer an added extra, it's becoming a staple.