2023

A new year dawns, and I swear last year was shorter than 12 months! It sped by. I'm sure it's an age thing, but following a couple of years with time having no meaning at all, I seemed to have blinked and 2023 arrived!

Almost all of 2020 and 2021 feel both like last Summer AND long, long, ago! Pandemic restrictions and adaptations seem to have been lifted only recently, while that first Lockdown was surely ancient history? All the changes have sectioned the in-between time into what feels like years instead of months.

I said last week (last year!) that this is my fourth academic year at Chartham, and the journey we've all been on has been epic, let alone our specific growth!

It took a lot of planning to reach how we delivered sessions last Term (info here).

Like all good journeys, ours is not about the destination, we aim for the horizon and keep going. Passengers and landscape alter all the time, and we have to re-navigate our path to accommodate pupils, staffing, budgets, and the environment. So January brings a change to our Forest School provision.

We have gone from three qualified Forest School Leaders to two, and our timetable has to alter to compensate. At the same time schools are being hit by all the price increases and budgets are stretching thin, and supporting the children who need it most is proving to be a difficult balancing act.

So the year will start with one class from each year group having Forest School for Term 3, then a swap for Term 4. 

At that point there will be another review on how we provide sessions, with the option to repeat Terms 3 & 4 being at least some form of continuity for staff and pupils.

Between the current Forest School Leaders this is easy to cover, and frees both of us up to do some small group work with children who need some extra support.

The ideal of three sites running sessions is not something we've abandoned, but currently we cannot provide this. Compromise has to be made - even if it's only temporarily - time will tell.

We're hosting training again in May/June and aim to create another Forest School Leader on staff. This doesn't mean we'll repeat the timetable we've had from September, but it does expand our options for future development.

Nothing remains static. 

We can't stagnate!

So, here's to 2023. A new year. A new start. A new way of doing things...

Watch this space!

Location: United Kingdom

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