Welcome Back!

Both School and Forest School is up and running with ALL pupils! Since the start of the year we've felt like a one form entry school with very low numbers! 

This has meant teaching staff have been juggling remote lessons, recording lessons, being online and in-class teaching on a rota. Plus Forest School has been open to all bubbles with Risk Assessed restrictions and procedures in place to minimise transition.
The basics of which are:

• As Forest School Leader I never enter their classrooms
• Classes are brought outside to basecamp by a teacher/TA
• Any tools used are wiped down between bubbles
• We sit at basecamp for less than 10 minutes at the start and end of sessions

The nature of Forest School is that once the children are free to explore they disappear in all directions! Some to climb trees, some to build dens, some to bug hunt, bird spot, treasure find, others to dig, etc. I am never face to face with a pupil or group of pupils for longer than 5 minutes! I move around to see what support they may need and observe their investigations, and they seek me out if they want advice or help, but we are only ever briefly within 2 metres of each other. 

Of course we are also OUTDOORS. There is less chance of transmission in the open air. In fact according to virologist Muge Cevik on twitter the risk is probably the lowest around the school!

Like all schools fully reopening we have no idea exactly how the latest disruption to childhood life has effected our pupils. We understand what the range can be, but we do not know how far that will extend, or in what quantities. All we can do is be aware that different children may struggle in different ways and 'good week' doesn't mean it's all OK. There is likely to be a delayed reaction to returning to daily 9-3 life for some pupils. Getting back into routine takes a little time.

This includes Forest School. Many children have spent very little time outdoors since 2021 began. A combination of Covid restrictions, the winter weather, parents working from home, school life upon a sofa with a laptop, and a lack of friends to interact with has altered their relationship with what is outside. Seasonal dark mornings and dull evenings have restricted the chances of getting outside and just walking, let alone enjoying parks, exploring woods, and rampaging around playgrounds! 

In our past 're-openings' it has led to mix of children who feel finally free and need to run and chase and take up as much space as they can, to those who want to sit quietly and do either a small task, or nothing except listen to the birds and just be. I'm sure many of our pupils barely remember the 'normal' which we as adults wistfully hope for! Their life has for a year been dominated by constant change: 

• In school/out of schools
• Full classes/small classes
• Seeing friends and family/isolation
• Routine/change

All at a moment's notice too.
Parents and carers and trusted adults haven't had the answers as to when things will change, or whether it will be an improvement on their lives! As a society we usually like to explain to our children what is going on, and they have picked up on our frustrations and annoyances over a year of cancelled plans and altered lifestyles. This doesn't include families that have experienced loss, illness or shielding, money concerns or struggles to maintain remote learning throughout these 12 months, on top of the concerns that effected us all.

Children are resilient but that doesn't mean they don't need support, guidance, and/or opportunity to process change in their own way. 

Forest School has managed to be around for almost all of that time. As constant as it can be. But we too settle into a way of doing things only for it all to alter yet again.

Having 15 classes a week, from EYFS through to Year 6 and including a SEN class, is an experience in itself! It means offering activities that can easily differentiate across age ranges and support a wide range of interests as the the opportunity between sessions to change them is very time limited. The focus remains very much on wellbeing, choice and space,  with the option of independent self-chosen tasks and adventures possible too.

It also allows the opportunity for staff to join in with with the child's learning, to let the child lead with prior knowledge, to help them find answers if they need them, and to be part of their games. To participate on the child's terms. This strengthens relationships between pupils and adults and adds a dimension to them that is difficult to create at playtimes or in the classroom.

The weather this week has tried to complicate our plans! Monday was icy and Tuesday was warm with all day sunshine! The children loved finding ice and looking at it with magnifiers, and others liked lazing on a picnic blanket and chatting looking at photobooks. Wednesday and Thursday dawned damp and windy with a weather alert that put us on alert for gusts to pass the maximum we are comfortable with. We have many old trees and our site is not only a plateaux but the highest ground for quite some distance, so utterly open to the elements. Wednesday we scraped through the day with windspeeds hovering just below 40mph, overnight this ramped up and by Thursday morning was still too windy to risk Forest School. So we sit and wait and do admin in front of a dreaded screen and see what the weather decides to throw at us...

It's been amazing to see faces for the first time this year! Some children have been remote learning since term began, and settling back in has been a focus of this week, indoors and out. At Forest School the classes have continued where they left off, whether that was last week or the beginning of January. We've had quiet activities at basecamp, picnic blankets with books (during our ONE day of sunshine!), all the usual flora and fauna information to access, the digging area, and the S P A C E to run and skip and jump and cartwheel and chase and climb trees.... Within 10 minutes basecamp was empty as children disappeared to find their own activities!

Completing this week doesn't mean the children are settled and ready for whatever lies ahead. 

It will take time for some to feel school life is once again familiar, and that they are ready to participate fully. But it has been a good start.

And Forest School will be there again next week...

and the weeks after....