Mama Beech

When you work in education you have two New Years.  Every September is a new start, a new intake, a new class, and a curriculum that's usually been tweaked if not reinvented! Then there's the turning of the year, when everyone around you is talking of resolutions, plans, aims, and goals for the coming twelve months, and we reflect on what has brought us to this point. When I took on the role of Forest School Leader at Chartham Primary, Forest School provision looked very different. I started in November 2019, so although this academic year is my fourth teaching year here, it's only three years since I began delivering Chartham Forest sessions - and a lot has happened!  My predecessor delivered sessions three afternoons a week, to half-classes of fifteen x KS2 pupils. By the start of this academic year, we had three fully qualified FSLs covering fourteen full classes from eyfs to Year 6!  Like all schools, we constantly aim to improve teaching, so our provision has evolved...

I'm sitting in a friend's dining room with huge mug of tea. She and her family are 'night owls' and I'm definitely an 'early bird'. It's 8am and she and I got to bed about 6 hours ago after a great dinner party and an overdue catch up in her new home. So now, the house is still, I have my cuppa, and I'm silently watching her snow covered garden. There are silent Crows and Magpies flitting up and down from grass to treetops, Sparrows performing aerobatic tumbles, and a Blackbird overturning leaves in pursuit of a sheltering bug, while Goldfinches zip past them at speed.  The snow is a messy mass of footprints, shadowy dips, and piled ridges. None of them human made. I can trace the journey the fox took from right to left along the edge of the patio and back again. I can see scurrying marks and holes the squirrels have left, and an assortment of pigeon footprints lead me to wonder if they were joining in with 'Strictly Come Dancing' last evenin...

Amongst Forest School Leaders and Outdoor Practitioners, there is always a conversation going on somewhere regarding clothing. What is the most durable?  The most value for money?  The warmest?  The most waterproof?  The BEST!? A lot of this will boil down to preference, and I think we all muddle through with a mix of new and old, top-class and trusted items that we know work for us! But when it comes to children it's a different matter. If we're supplying overalls we want the most hard-wearing clothing, capable of sliding down muddle banks without ripping and totally waterproof to protect whatever is underneath... and that comes at a price, especially when you need to buy in bulk. Usually, there is a compromise somewhere, maybe not the most expensive range but a mid-price version we hope will last a few years. Sometimes the remit to provide suitable attire will fall on parents and carers. This is something many will have considered before signing up to a Forest Scho...