Network
That's it! Training days are over. 18 students lamenting the end of face-to-face learning but excited to head off to their own sessions! A mix of nerves, doubt, gung-ho attitude, and enthusiasm hangs in the air!
The most evident thing for me during training was how infrequently using tools and focusing on making happens in school. With a ratio of 1:15, limited time, and only one Forest School trained adult on-site, it simply never happens!
In the past I have used a bow saw with reception children, we have created wood cookies, I have used drills and loppers, we have had penknives out... but I've done very little of it at Chartham.
Because we are covering PPA, we only have two adults with a class. If I start an activity that requires me to focus on 2/3/4 children, then the TA who accompanied the children will be left with the vast majority of the class alone.
Using tools over the last couple of months has shown that it's not always about Forest School Leaders learning new skills, it's about them getting to use the skills they have! There are a lot of resources we could make, there are a lot of skills we could teach, there's a lot we could progress onto by ourselves! But we rarely have the opportunity if we're working with full classes.
This isn't the case for independent Forest Schools, higher ratios bring a lot of freedom! Whether it's more staff or smaller groups. Their skills are usually used much more widely!
As much as I like a conference, and get excited about a Forest School Weekend, just getting together and swapping ideas and experiences, asking and giving advice, sharing progress and encouragement is massively underrated.
For a lot of us, life gets in the way. It's easy to plan an afterschool meet-up from 3.30 - 5, but there are often our own children to collect from school or commutes that need to be started. Nice evenings out beckon, parents' evenings interfere, or Tesco just has to be visited! Then, of course, we don't all work full time, dashing along on a day you don't actually work isn't always appealing...
But if you can form a network it is really worth it! Even the #OutdoorEdChat on Twitter each Thursday from 8pm - 9pm offers support you may struggle to find elsewhere!
You can open up the 'club' you create to other local Forest School Practitioners if you want to expand the range of experience in your group.
Covid ground the last Network I was in to a halt and re-starting it has not been easy. September will have to be a new start... I hope!
Meanwhile, these visits to each other's sites are a great way to magpie ideas. Seeing things in situ often affords an insight into how it can be adapted for your own space. It can also bring an understanding of the different limits each FSL faces, and why they may not be the same as yours, knowing we're all adapting and compromising can be a reassuring thing!
If you are NOT in any kind of group, I'd recommend trying to connect. In a school there are at least half a dozen teachers who can support each other. In Forest School, there is usually a sole provider of FS Sessions!
If I can help this group, who already have great camaraderie, to continue to share with and help each other, then I will. Starting with some time at the end of term when we can all have an opportunity to use those skills again!
Forest School Training 2023 is in the diary for next May. When we do it all again! Hopefully, it will produce 18 more like-minded people who see the benefit of collaboration.
Then Network 2 will begin... and maybe an extension to the Forest School Network the class of 22 is forging!
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