Essential to Learning
I'm spending a lot of time supporting student Forest School Leaders. Well, nowhere near as much as a full-time trainer does, but a lot more than I've ever needed to before! This ranges from phone calls with questions, to emails for confirmation, to me choosing to share articles and information that I come across with people who may find it helpful.
The first thing to notice is that their enthusiasm is infectious.
A great session with the children, one where there are too many 'wow' moments and great questions from the children to list, so many discoveries and connections you see them make, and even the wildlife seems to have got the memo and showed up on cue, doesn't fill me full or enthusiasm or excitement. Sometimes it's relief! Usually it's a sense of... validation...? That Forest School has proved its worth yet again? I don't know what to call it when everything falls into place perfectly, I feel happy that everything aligned! Satisfaction that what was 'planned' worked, and affirmation that this really is the best way for children to learn so many things. But none of this feels like excitement or enthusiasm in the way it does when you're training.
So much of a session is totally out of the Forest School Leaders' control. The weather. The wildlife. The environment in general. The mood of individual children. The mood of the group. What they were doing immediately before they arrived. This is why we are so adaptable. We're pretty good at thinking on our feet, and whatever is 'planned' can change to incorporate whatever is thrown up at us during a session.
'Planning' itself is difficult to do. You can base it on the season reasonably well but not on the weather, and if you are truly following the interest of the children you can't plan much at all. You can prompt and you can try to steer events this way or that, but you probably won't succeed. The growth in outdoor craft activities and bushcraft often feels like a response to this, an activity you can gauge as successful. Frequently parents respond well to something to take home as a token of the good time their child had. Yet we all know the engagement and learning comes through the process not the product, and having nothing to show for an hour of discovery, understanding, enjoyment and participation doesn't mean it didn't happen!
This week the excitement has again been with those attending sessions. Not adults training, but children exploring.
A Year 2 child wanted to make a raft, I showed her how to make a lashing and she proceeded to use long logs to create one on the grass. At one point she passed on her new-found knowledge and showed a classmate how to tie them together, and they both built a raft. "I never thought I'd ever be able to build a whole raft!" she declared at the end.
A small group of boys from the SEND satellite classes came on a walk around the field with me. We spotted a lizard in the grass, we saw butterflies, and damselflies, and saw the path the fox has worn across the field. They had lots of questions and the awe and wonder at each new discovery were tangible.
Year 1 finding two frogs in our tiny wildlife pond and sitting to watch silently for 20 minutes.
Year 3 watching hundreds of caterpillars in a Spindle Tree.
Year 2 and Year 6 running, jumping, climbing, tumbling, using up pent up energy from the recent SAT focus inside... and pausing to build themselves prisons...
All have been times or moments of fun and excitement that will always be infectious.
Sometimes the enthusiasm runs a little strong, like when a child brought me a newt in a sandwich bag of pond water and asked 'can I keep it?'. And the two times this week I've been called upon to view a fledgling away from its parents.
But the children's connection with nature is something to be fostered, so the excitement sometimes needs to be a little tempered.
Being the facilitator introducing children to everything they can discover outdoors frequently reigns in my excitement because I'm trying to make the most of the opportunity as it arises.
Watching adults discover what they can facilitate is just as exciting, but without the need to 'teach'.
As the trainee FSLs explore their chosen job they get to uncover all the potential learning they can provide. It can be a little overwhelming, but it's also really exciting for them, and that excitement I can join in with!
Once upon a time 'Awe and Wonder' were buzz words in education. More recently 'enrichment'. None of which you can teach as a subject, you can only offer the opportunities to indulge.
Forest school offers these opportunities, and more:
You can't plan these, you can't mark these, these don't fit well onto a data sheet, but these are essential to learning.
I suppose that when I try to explain my feelings when a session goes really well I can only say: that's Forest School.
When a session turns out totally different to what was perceived...?
That's Forest School.
When any or all of the children engaged in something new to them.
That's Forest School.
When they leave you notes like these:
That's Forest School.
And for those who don't understand that as an explanation - they need to get outside and experience Forest School!
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Please note that training at Chartham Forest School is provided by trainers FSLI and will be running again in May 2023
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