Maintenance
Seeing a whole new batch of enthusiastic students onsite never ceases to remind me how much I love Forest School.
In the last few months, the season and weather have meant I was able to focus on activities rather than the environment. But Spring is here with a vengeance and now places need taming, areas need clearing, and everywhere needs monitoring!
I've been using my site time, PPA, Lunchtimes, and gaps between sessions to get some work underway on the Copse Site. The poisonous perennials are breaking through the grassy areas, all the ropes holding up tyres and swings need checking, and the 1000+ trees we've planted since 2019 need an individual inspection!
Basecamp is kind of an outdoor classroom, one where the flooring grows, gets damp, gets muddy, shoots up dodgy plants, is an eternal trip hazard, and is full of bugs! The 'walls' are budding, which means lots of flying insects and new branches flung out into previously clear spaces. The stinging nettles are in competition to see which will be the tallest, and the brambles like to grow in loops that can lasso your feet!
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Most of this we want to keep! But it does need managing. Obviously, I do try to include the children in some of this maintenance, they are usually eager to be involved and learn a lot from participating. But some jobs are a little too tricky for children, others I cannot do during a session as it would take up ALL of my attention, and some are just much faster completed without help!
Plus auditing what equipment we have, and listing the cracked binoculars, toy birds that no longer sing, broken handles on peelers, and the constant need for twine, string, and rope!
It's very easy to get weighed down in site development and the (important but) routine chores that make Forest School possible, and lose sight of the fun to be had! It's a constant balancing act between the two, and with sessions in a school, the ratios can limit activities if they're not planned well. We try to have as many independent activities as possible, this means the adults can wander around, observe what is happening, help where needed, direct if required, and extend and inform learning whenever possible. These opportunities to explore and investigate constantly change and evolve. They're influenced by the season, the weather, the age group, and my constant search for new materials.
It will never be finished.
We will never think that there is nothing left to do!
Which again, can draw focus away from the sessions into the prep.
Seeing the engagement of Forest School Leader students, who have yet to plan and plot a site of their own, or develop an existing space, is a great reminder to stand back and enjoy what is there.
Yes, it can be improved.
Yes, there is plenty that must be done.
No, there are not enough hours in a week to do it all!
But taking time to enjoy what the children are doing is always worth it!
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