Mama Beech

Many Forest School sessions run within Primary Schools. Trying to keep to the ethos of the pedagogy we know and love while influenced or even pressured, towards doing something very different is not always easy. For those of us who trained while working in education, a career of providing proof of learning is inbuilt. There's an entire philosophical PHD somewhere in the question of whether learning happens without proof! We reduce it down to tick charts, numbers, and letters, and load it as data onto reports and software. Often 'proof' becomes a product, something 'to take home', something tangible that stands solid as evidence of achievement. At Chartham, we don't use Forest School as an extension of what is happening inside. We may offer activities to support what's happening in their themes and topics, and the children themselves frequently bring their new knowledge outdoors and ask questions, act it out, and explore it in a different way. What happens in...

Looking back over Forest School from September 2019 surprisingly few sessions have been in a downpour. That's not to say that plenty were not wet - they certainly were! - but either it was lighter rain, or wet from overnight rain, or somehow scattered showers missed our session time, or, as we all know, it waited till 3pm to start! Inuit languages/dialects have 40 - 50 words for 'snow'. It saves having to describe it with a sentence. For instance, snow that has fallen and is on the ground is aput, while piqsirpoq is snow that is drifting across the land rather than qimuqsuq which is an actual snowdrift.  In Kent this week we've used many words for rain! It pounded, and poured, hammered and pelted, drenched and flooded much of the county. A lot of it has been overnight, but days have not been unscathed! Forest School this week was at its driest times - damp! This was accompanied by high winds for part of the week, with gusts verging on safety levels for us, and impedin...