Open Days

We're going to have an Open Day!

There is a steady flow of visitor requests across the year and we're happy to accommodate. It does take time out of the day (but never sessions) so we're trialing a day for visitors when the Forest School Lead has no other commitments!

Different visitors want to see different things.

Sometimes it's part of a School Leadership Team wanting to see how we run. Sometimes it's people who want to train and have questions about Forest School. Sometimes it's a Forest School Leader who just wants to be nosy! In my days of working INSIDE classrooms, nothing was more useful or fun than looking around other peoples' classrooms! How they created displays, what their book corner looked like, how they used all those things you never knew you wanted in the IKEA Market area! It's the same with any outdoor space. How big is it, what's the environment, what do you use, how is it set up...? We all love a good rummage around someone else's outdoor space!

So we plan 3 tours in the day. Each will get to see the different areas we have on-site and ask questions about how we fit it into the school week, how it supports learning, how parents react to it, what equipment we have, what budget, what staff, etc. We will be encouraging all those contemplating it to start Forest School sessions themselves and offering advice and support on doing so.

Rather than assign each tour an aim, it will be a case of repeating everything. That way visitors have a choice of when to visit.

If this is a successful way of giving maximum attention to those who want to come and look we will aim to run it again in Autumn.

We are Kent based, very close to Canterbury, the A2 and the A28. We have buses on the doorstep in Shalmsford Street, and Chartham has a Train Station with access to London and the Kent Coast. 

We have aimed for a Friday so that anyone who is traveling from further afield can make it part of a weekend trip if they want to! We cannot offer accommodation but there is plenty in and around the City of Canterbury next door and on the coast at Whitstable 25 minutes away!

How we run this in the future will be guided by feedback from visits in June.

We are also hoping to run an Autumn Reunion Skills Day for Forest School Students of 2022 which would be fantastic as an annual event - we don't have details of that yet, but have looked to the alumni for ideas!


This year's Spring/Summer course is in full swing, and we will be running a brand new Level 3 course in October/November 2023.

We are not setting ourselves up as a perfect example or a guiding light on how to provide Forest School, but we are open to sharing what works for us.

You must be fed up with me reiterating that every practice is different. Forest School Leaders will play to their strengths, the site and environment will dictate, and equipment, age groups, and ratios will all influence provision.
We can only explain what we've discovered, built on, and adapted in order to deliver sessions, and it is a constant 'work in progress' that has to change as staff levels alter, through illness, through the needs of certain classes and children, through the seasons, and as the site, and skills that staff have, develop. The path our outdoor learning journey has taken is not the same as anyone else's!

We find the top 3 elements most visitors find challenging in providing Forest School are:

  1. Finding time
  2. Staying true to the ethos
  3. Training staff

These issues have multiple reasons for presenting a problem and equally have potentially multiple solutions to explore.

If you are thinking of running a Forest School in your School, if you are considering training, if you are having difficulties fighting the Forest School corner when demands are not true to the concept, or if you just want to be nosy - please get in touch.

Equally, please share this blog or the flyer below with anyone you feel may benefit from visiting us!

Finally, these are the details (repeated in the flyer below!):

Date:

Friday 16th June

Times: 

9.30am

10.30am

  1pm

Where:

Chartham Primary School
   Shalmsford Street
  Chartham
      KENT CT4 7QN

(there are limited spaces, and a few have already been taken!)

 email to request a place

We look forward to saying hello.

Location: United Kingdom

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