Forest School Adventure (part 8) FRIDAY!

In true busy forest school fashion, no time to take lots of pics today! The group of two dozen 8-14yr olds had a blast. Woodwork, slate painting, den building, hammock lazing, slack line challenge, etc etc kept everyone entertained!

The older children need supervision from a distance. They are much more able, and much more independent, but just as willing to chance their luck pushing boundaries! 

We also had a visit today from the Scilly Wildlife Trust who explained a little of the environment we were all in, and took the most interested children off for a Wildlife wander.


 Today they also had the opportunity to make a Basha Boat, which was literally carried to the nearby beach to test! Lots of children dipped in and out of helping, but the adults did the most of the actual building!


The setting continues to be stunning - but that is every inch of St. Mary's, and every other island in the Scilly's.

The biggest difference between Forest School at Chartham and here is the setting up. Katie, who runs this summer club each year, has to lug stuff to site, and I mean LUG! She doesn't reduce the activities available to the children which means everything needs to be carried to site. Luckily, the car can be parked, fully packed, about 200m from the site. Even so, it takes 5 or 6 people 3 trips each from car to site! At Chartham, having a container next to basecamp on the school site is a life (energy and sanity) saver!

Setting up things such as slack lines and hammocks also eats into set up time. Today 6 adults spent an hour each getting everything ready for a group of children. Think about that. 6 hours of setting up for 6 hours of exploring. Followed inevitably by 6 adults taking 30 minutes to pack everything away... having sneakily started to tidy 30 minutes before! Taking down dens, packing up paint, folding and piling up tarpaulins...

Never under estimate just how much work goes into making 'child led' exploring and learning possible!

Whether a session is successful or not, it will be labour intensive, and will tax you mentally and drain you emotionally! It's an exhausting process - worth every minute, enjoyable, fun, and totally knackering!


So completing the first week of volunteering here on Scilly feels like an achievement! 

Roll on next work.h



Location: United Kingdom

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