Mama Beech

I know lots of Forest School Leaders are doing a great job of flying the flag for Outdoor Learning. I am biased, but it is a great part of OL and feeds into all others as well as classroom life. I know many FSL have found life within a pandemic was frustrating as sessions were cancelled or reduced, and now that we are emerging into a world with a better understanding of covid, getting children outside has suddenly increased in demand. For all those independent Forest Schools I hope this growing interest leads to a surge in sessions to make up for the lost time and money to your businesses. The children do need you! For all those independent FSLs out there, I hope schools are snapping up your services and making the most of the expertise out there and are bringing it into schools. I also know that neither of these options are that simple in practice. But they are in theory. Parents and schools and other organisations need to be thinking about the summer and planning for the new academic...

As the world struggles to get back to some kind of normal taking children outside is increasingly being recognised as a necessity and not just good practice. It really doesn't matter if the children go outside to play cricket, to do Forest School, have an extended playtime, take a lesson outside, or do something specific for the day. Let's be honest, you can't peek into a nesting box while in the classroom! I keep saying that Forest School is just one form of outdoor learning, and this week was an opportunity to prove that with Outdoor Classroom Day: 'Outdoor Classroom Day is a global movement to make time outdoors part of every child’s day. On two days of action each year, teachers take children outdoors to play and learn. All year round, the Outdoor Classroom Day community campaigns for more time outdoors every day.' The next date will be in the Autumn so if you haven't already - now is a good time to sign up ! With a remit that literally means exiting 4 walls...

Since Covid swept the country there has been a focus on getting children outside. This is a great thing. After years of adults complaining sending children outdoors will 'make them sick' the idea that germs cause sickness and not the weather is finally taking hold! Getting the children outside has led to staggering breaks and lunchtimes, hopefully to more lessons going out into the playground or school garden if they have one. Grab a clipboard and take almost any lesson outside. Get a bit creative and take entire subjects out of the classroom. Use the space to make the learning plan bigger. Assemblies, music, and choirs have all moved out of the building in order to continue - look online and see what has been achieved by relying on outside spaces! There has been a surge in woodcraft and foraging courses, for adults as well as teachers, forest bathing and outdoor yoga has brought mindfulness back to parks and woodland, camping holidays have never been so popular! The human race...

I know a lot of Forest School Leaders take extra time and effort to ensure there is a specific activity each session for the children to join in with. Occasionally I have something specific I'd like to do with the children, but mostly the provision is there for them to use to follow their own activity . I, therefore, am free to help them follow their own learning, respond to what they ask, and extend their interests. The ever-present resources are for 'Bug Hunting', 'Bird exploration', and 'What's Growing'. Most sessions will also include books and basic woodwork tools, as well as a 'Nature Table', which sounds ridiculous outdoors but works well. All these are dotted around Basecamp. Adjacent to this we have a large digging area with gardening tools, plus mud kitchen equipment. None of this is left out in Forest School, despite being on school grounds, but because our site is ours alone, we do have a storage container where we can keep  these ite...