After Forest School (Part 2)

Last week I spoke of an unexpected and very brief exchange over the phone, with my new physio, who mentioned Forest School. It was just a few sentences but seemed to say quite a lot about his FS experience. It made me want to ask him more. But for that, I would need to wait till the actual appointment! (link to Part 1 here)

Long before Forest School, I started my professional life as an NNEB Nursery Nurse in the NHS, when I moved into education, the school I was at did home visits to meet all new intake children and new-to-school pupils in their own homes. This made their initial contact with us as staff feel safe and comfortable in their own territory! This was back when we could go alone (not in pairs, or in masks) to parent's houses, and it set up an unofficial key-worker system as families felt the connection to whichever staff member they met at home. 

This was also the days before parents needed a DBS to volunteer in the classroom! We had many who would either drop in and stay for a session, commit to a regular day to help out or bring in a skill to share with children. We've had whole families come in and explain Eid to a carpet of 25 three and four-year-olds, people do a quick dance/drama/music session, Mums who stayed every Friday afternoon to help out, wash up, read endless stories in the book corner, and Dads who chose to stay and play on their day off.

This meant we had very strong ties with the families in our class. Especially when siblings followed! We frequently knew children from bump to pupil, and families for over a decade. Obviously, the entire school got to know these families as the children progressed through the school, but several things would happen. Frequently once a child reached Reception Class their main carer would return to work. The classroom setups were not conducive to parents just dropping in in the same way and school timetables did not work with the parent's one. 

As the children went into Key Stage One and Key Stage Two there was less and less contact between parents and teachers. Children were dropped off at the door or gate and picked up in the playground. School and Families rarely just chatted, communication was mostly official and teachers often relied on the opinion passed on from the previous teacher to understand that family.

Nursery on the other hand watched these children progress all the way up to year 6 and noticed changes in family dynamics, family members, and family circumstances. Long after the children left Early Years (this all started PRE eyfs!) they would pop into Nursery to ask us questions or just to talk. 

I know that up to 2019 things had altered a lot. Over the years lots changed. The law for one, parent's needed a DBS check to volunteer regularly, which could take half of the school year to sort out. Society changed, more parents needed to go back to work as soon as their child was in Nursery, therefore were not available to help. Children were dropped off and picked up by minders and Grandmas, nannies and Au Pairs. Staff found themselves speaking to parents less and less.
School policies changed, whereas once parents came in with younger siblings suddenly bringing babies into a classroom was risk assessed as not appropriate. Lots of changes conspired to weaken that bond long before Covid came along and changed everything for everyone!

You may wonder why I'm boring you with all this! Well for independent Forest Schools their relationship with families is very similar. When we started our school Forest School at my previous job we needed volunteers to support us in taking the children across the road to a different site safely, and parents were very good at signing up, coming along, joining in, and integrating. True school/family partnership in education and development. This is a very powerful relationship.

Now I'm old! And at a very different school. The kids in my first term of Nursery Class are 30+ now and I still know some of them! Either through being friendly with the family for the last 27 years, or because I've bumped into them as adults and we've stayed in touch, or because they've found me on Facebook!

I've been to weddings and baby showers, I've had coffee dates with their parent gatecrashed because they wanted to come and say hello, I have smiles and memories thrown at me all the time.

For those a little younger than 30, those who accessed Forest School with me, from 2013 onward (so in their teens now), the reaction is exactly the same. 

The first Nursery Children I taught, I was with for up to 5 terms (back last century!) day in and day out. For Forest School it would've been 2 hours a week for 2 x six-week blocks in a year. It may be that they got sessions in Nursery, Reception, Year 1 AND Year 2, but for many it ended once they left the eyfs. For at least a third of those children they would not have been in my class at all, yet that relationship fills a lot of their memories.

I accept this is partly because of the formative nature of early relationships, but those who did just 12 sessions with me in Year 2 still mention it when I see them.

"Do you remember doing Forest School?" they ask ME! 
Some have anecdotes, like the time they got caked in mud, or found a stag beetle, or climbed a tree for the first time.
Others remember it as a whole: "I missed Forest School when I went into KS2".

I asked a couple of those ex-pupils this week what they remembered of going up to Walker's Woods (at the end of the playground) for sessions:

"I remember that I liked it when it rained because we could make mud and that tree that was so scary to jump out of. I saw that again in Year 6 and it was so small! I loved the hot chocolate of course. Oh and I still remember left and right by visualising us turning left when we left the building!" 

"I love all things outdoors. I did cross country in secondary school and I love camping. I don't know if that was Forest School or if I would love it anyway, but my earliest memories of being outside in trees and looking at wildlife and stuff is Forest School. We didn't have a garden, just a balcony, and I know my mum hated bugs and dirt! I begged to go to scouts and did my first camping trip with a friend I met there. My mum still hates the outdoors, but my Dad took me a couple of weekends. He was surprised how much I knew about birds and bugs etc and a lot of that I learned in Forest School."

So while my torturer - sorry I mean physio - explained if my exercises don't hurt I have to do them harder until they do, I changed the subject and asked him about his Forest School experience. The distraction worked. A smile spread across his face:

"Oh man, it was great! My Dad was brought up in Jamaica and was all for me being outside playing like he did as a child. My Mum hated me bringing dirt in! It was a balance, y'know? Dad let me get filthy and my Mum would freak! But I never got into trouble. Going into Forest School was a revelation! It was OK to play in mud, to pick up bugs, to climb through bushes, real commando crawl! No one telling us 'no'! The only birds I can identify properly are those I saw back then. 

I still try to use outdoor gyms, run in parks and not around streets, and wherever I'm on holiday I want to see some of the wildlife, their parks and woods. 

It made that environment, trees and grass and that, normal. In a big urban area, where I had mates who'd never been in the big park, it made walking on grass, listening to birds, looking at the floor and watching clouds part of everyday life.

It still is."