Forest School Risk Assessment

This month's weather has been the kind I like, as long as I don't have to work! So being a term time Forest School has it's benefits because I can kick back and enjoy the heat! 

The sun has been out almost permanently, and on the rare occasion when cloud cover has has arrived, the temperature has dipped - just a little. Storms have been promised, and have raged around the country, in places causing havoc, but no rain evident for Mama Beech ... yet.

This is the problem with term time only Forest School:

The constant wondering if the newly planted willow is curling up and dying, if the pond is ridiculously low, or if the Woodland Trust baby trees are coping with the heat...

Next week I will have the opportunity to go in and check everything over. I live 50 miles away from the site so I have no idea what I will find! This may well be a damage control visit rather than any kind of development planning! And if the storms come between now and then the ravages of a deluge or four on heat baked ground will throw up their own issues. I'm both impatient to get in and see what needs to be done, and dreading the worst!

I am contemplating some sort of rain dance (wash the car, paint the front door, etc) in the hope that a good downpour will arrive if the storms skip us yet again.

Weather brings all kinds of issues to Forest School.

In this heat children want to be in short sleeves and short trousers, no one wants to put overclothes on, and despite the trees there's often not enough shade!

Frequently parents also feel light summer clothing will be fine for climbing trees, sitting in dirt, the usual exploring meadow grass, bushes, and crawling through tunnels.

Short sleeves often means sunburn. 

Short trousers frequently lead to insect bites, stings, and ticks. 

Not to mention running through long grass can leave scratches and minor cuts. 

The risk of muddy clothes may be minimal in hot weather, but thin summer clothes rip and wear quickly, and offer minimal protection from the environment.

It's often a bigger battle to have appropriate, safe clothing during sunshine than it is rain! It seems so much more obvious when it's protecting home clothes from the damp and the mud, and when it provides an extra layer of warmth, especially if the children will be spending a long period afterwards in a classroom. 

Different establishments have different rules. Lots of Forest Schoolers are not required to wear protective clothing all year round, or at all. This has to be an establishment's independent choice, but in the true spirit of outdoor learning, clothing is a safety layer that needs to be included in Risk Assessments. In 2020 with a global pandemic circulating the RA also has to include considerations for CoViD.

If you don't provide outfits for the children then there's the issue of whether parents can afford them, or can afford their own clothes being replaced after damage. It's a factor anyone opening up an independent Forest School business has to consider, because the cost of quality overclothes is not cheap!

I wish it was as easy as saying there is a definitive rule as to Forest School 'uniform'. Insisting on overclothes may exclude some children, but at the very least 'suitable' clothing needs to be weather appropriate and we need to be sure parents understand what this is.

Before we broke up I noticed some bug with teeth (I assume mosquitoes but never caught them at it!) had learned to bite me THROUGH running leggings, so even the covered parts of me were at risk of bites! The 'long sleeves' and 'long trousers' doesn't always help! I did have MORE itchy bumps on uncovered skin though.

Meanwhile the August sun, still a fairly rare phenomenon in England, beats down and challenges Mama Beech. Fast forward to Winter and the rain and cold will be doing the same. Some of you may be battling flooding right now. The weather will always challenge our site and our practice. I'm building up a bank of used wellies that the children have grown out of, and coats too, to be used as spares when needed. Dry warm clothing for anyone who does get wet and cold, or who arrives in a warm car unprepared for the outdoors...

But being the entirely mad entity that current times are, sharing clothing requires it's own risk assessment! 

Whereas a coat could be passed around, now it will have to be laundered after every use. As we have the facilities available we could do this in school ourselves, but it will need to be planned in to assure time to clean and dry said items, and a safe space can be allocated. Wellies will require spraying down after use, and probably all 'borrowing' will need to be logged with names and dates to ensure tracking.

Even though we all feel we have our Risk Assessments in place for starting sessions in September, there are going to be incidents and events that are no longer simple, and suddenly throw up all sorts of possibilities that need exploring and risk-assessing and countering to minimise cross infection.

Of course an RA is a working document so we are all used to adjusting and amending as we go. I'm not sure I'm entirely confident I've thought of EVERY CoViD related possibility, or that I have a solution to all those I have considered. The RA 'sheet' is becoming less of a leaflet and more of a manual! 

My handbook resembles a telephone directory circa 1985 in size...

But what else can we do? 

Outdoor Learning is always important, now it has a bigger role in school life, and a bigger role in childrens' lives. 

I'm sure it's full of typos, and my Covid RA is also very site specific, based on the facilities and routines we use to provide up to 2hr sessions for pupils in school. However if you feel it may be of use please click HERE for a jpeg of the PDF. 

It is not definitive, but it may act as some kind of tick sheet to see if it covers something you haven't yet considered. 

Likewise, if there is anything you feel we have missed out, please let us know.