Outdoors!

There is an unwritten yet universal law that states if it's Forest School Celebration Week, and four days of campfires to burn, the hottest day of the year so far will dawn! The children obviously don't mind, but as the Forest School Leader cannot move too far from the fire, adults have the fun of Eau De Bonfire on all clothing and hair as well as the sensation that human melting is actually possible!

Planning this week is fairly easy - prepping it takes a little effort. As we are currently still doing shorter sessions for 14 classes ensuring I am prepared for a 4-day campfire plus treats tends to involve a full car boot and a bit of heavy lifting!

Although we DO have trees, and a small amount of woodland we don't have anywhere near the natural resources on-site to fuel a fire from 9 till 3 from Monday to Thursday! So we bring in kindling and firewood. Then there are the treats. The consensus amongst the children is 'Marshmallows please!", so we need 14 bags of those, plus a vegan alternative. We stick with 'boring' biscuits, no cookies or chocolate chips, but as the older children like to sandwich them all together to create Smores (the younger ones prefer to dunk the bicky in the Hot Chocolate!), we still need 14 packets of those too. Then there's the jars of Hot Chocolate AND a non-dairy option - as well as a gluten-free biscuit alternative, and enough skewers (over 300) to gain glances from other shoppers when I put the supermarket's entire stock in the trolley! At the till there are frequently raises eyebrows as the conveyor belt is loaded (am I the only one who feels the need to explain 'it's all for Forest School' to perfect strangers who haven't even asked?)!

So first thing on Monday morning all the wood needs lugging from the car to
basecamp. 

In school 3 enormous flasks of hot water must be filled. 

The Forest School 'shed' holds enough cups but they have to be rinsed first and put in a covered container before use.

And then a few wipes for all surfaces at hand need to be accessible. 

Next, I set out all the usual information and equipment for the children to use when exploring. Tools are checked, a safety sweep completed, and if I want to be coherent, a cup of tea is drunk!

Then I ensure the campfire is set, the kelly kettle is ready to boil, and all the safety equipment is to hand. We have a sand bucket, a water bucket, and two fire blankets!

Pre-covid days I would set the fire WITH the children. There were half-classes of up to 15 and small groups of pupils could join in the process. Teaching the children to firelight safely themselves was an option, but in the current climate, our classes are full and bustling, and arrive with a short break between sessions. To make the area safe after a fire we dampen down everything and that makes it almost impossible to set a new fire afterwards. It also uses a lot more wood! So once started the campfire stays lit all day.

Monday and Tuesday each have 4 classes timetabled. The gap between sessions isn't enough time to retrieve more clean water from inside so I need to take out enough for the day. I try not to use wet-wipes, so in the past, I've used a washing-up bowl, soap, and water heated from the kelly kettle. I have also tried starting the session with treats as the children arrive with clean hands! Both have worked well as each group is a bubble and can 'share' a huge beach towel to dry their hands (a new space each!) Often the choice of how I do this is based on weather (if it is wet and muddy it's always best to do treats first!), the age of the children, and how long their session will be.

I've also used hot water and washing-up liquid to clean the cups on site ready for the next group to use, but I prefer to use the dishwasher if I can! On Monday there were over 90 cups to wash by the end of the day, there would have been less had they been re-used throughout the day - but ensuring they will be dust-free let alone 'covid-clean' is more than I am willing to promise to manage.

Sessions are about 80 minutes long, the children often want to spend SOME time sitting around basecamp looking at the flames, but they also want to explore. So activities need to be accessible but away from the fire. I have done half a dozen of these celebration weeks with these particular children and I still end up having to troubleshoot issues and adapt the session at a minute's notice! It can be tiring! Obviously I can't move away from the fire so occasionally I get deserted as all the children disappear to explore! 

Other times they choose to do some basic woodcraft and I get company! 

Usually it's a mix of both scenarios, with children coming and going...

Of course, because it's not actually summer, the weather also likes to plunge into a sudden cold snap, or throw in some damp and wind to make everything a little more difficult! This week has been a typical 4-seasons-in-4-days scenario. So sessions were delivered slightly differently each day.

Because we are heading into the Easter Holidays some classes chose to combine their outdoor time with an egg hunt. For eyfs this meant tracking down eggs in the undergrowth and returning them to a large empty nest! Every egg found (one each) was swapped for a marshmallow which they could choose to toast if they wanted to. Year 1 brought their own egg hunt and squealed their way around the copse in excitement.

You always need to be ready for the unexpected, and being fully occupied with fielding children away from flames and keeping a campfire going all session, is no excuse for not grabbing learning opportunities when people bring me things that they want to explore... Like dead pigeons, and big decisions like is it a rat or squirrel skull... (it's been an eventful week)! 

As always there are restrictions on what we can achieve because I am the only Forest School Leader, but the staff at school are all very supportive and hands-on when it comes to Outdoor Learning. Hence Miss Smith climbing Mama Beech with pupils from her class...

Marking the end of term is something that covid has made fraught, but being outdoors has an advantage! The entire school can be part of Campfire Week, even if it's not 350 children all at once, it's a shared experience! 

The heat this week throws up the eternal question of clothing. Many children are either swaddled up from the chilly start to the day or finding the sun on exposed skin a little too much. Suitable footwear and clothing that can get muddy is always an issue, especially when we can't provide overclothes. There will always be children getting scratches from brambles and grazes from bark when they climb because they are in shorts and T-Shirts. Forest School clothing can be recommended but chasing parents for correct clothing is time-consuming and ultimately other than forcing the child to miss out there is little to be done except frequently nagging parents. This can lessen their child's experience of Forest School, being cold or wet, or caked in mud, can be uncomfortable. 

However many of our children seem to relish being covered in mud or buried in sandy soil!

As much fun as the children have, ultimately our priority is for pupils to find a love of 'the great outdoors', and to develop both curiosity about the world around them and an inquisitive attitude that reflects in the classroom as much as it does in basecamp. The eagerness with which they demand to know whose skull we've found, the persistence in using woodwork tools to create, the confidence boost when trying something new, and the independent way they follow their own thinking, are valuable learning skills that transfer into school life.

And if these attributes get celebrated with hot chocolate, marshmallows and biscuits at the end of term - that can't be a bad thing!