Mama Beech

That's it! Forest School sessions ended this week. Another academic year is over & out for us.  The children and staff are still in for a few days, but now is our time for planning next year, catching up on admin, a few 'gardening' duties, maintenance, repair, and an opportunity to reflect on what we have achieved and how we plan to build on it. As usual the last week of term was a Celebration Week to round off 6 weeks of sessions. Usually this requires a campfire, 400 marshmallows to toast, gallons of hot chocolate, half the biscuit aisle from the supermarket, and the delicate process of 'make your own' marshmallow sandwich task for all classes! This time, it did not.  With the heat in South East England not only being high (for us!) and hotter predicted, we made the decision not to have campfires based on a number of factors: It is definitely hot enough! We do not to be warmed up any further. I wanted basecamp to be a shaded respite from the heat. Lack of rain...

This week I started to assess the students who studied their Level 3 Forest School Leader course with us. Luckily for me, I started close at home with a colleague. I had criteria to focus on as well as an overall impression to form. It wasn't entirely a tick chart, there was room for comment, for justification of opinion, or example of success/failure. This is mostly guidance though, Forest School, like most of life, is a little more nuanced than a 'yes' or 'no'. This became really evident when going over everything with the student afterwards. The ability to assess her own very good session was hampered by provisos on every point. She felt there was more she could have done, more she could have provided, more she could expand... And there probably was, but isn't that true of every session? I've got used to the assessment part of my planning being a shorthand that few others would understand. A quick reference to say how to improve an activity, or to try it ...