Mama Beech

I hate being ill.  OK, I know no one actually likes it, but I hate that while my body sweats or vomits or aches or coughs, my brain speeds through 100 things that need sorting that instant due to my absence, AND the several knock on effects that being away from site causes. This past week I was tired - big deal, who isn't!? As we hurtle towards the end of the school year there is no calm wind down...  just the wind UP to the Summer Holidays! There's the leavers production,  the transition days,  sports day,  school fete,  visits,  the Yr6 water fight,  visitors,  and usual curriculum to squeeze in. July = 3 weeks of school, that's 15 days IN school, throw in an inset and couple of strike days and there's a dozen days left! Now it's July 7th, we're down to nine! In Forest School we are not immune to the pace or changes to the norm. The children who are anxious about moving up or moving on, or are just not coping with disrupted routines, bring their issues to base

Recently, I was at a party with a few people whose children I don't know. Inevitably, I was asked what I do for a living and I gave an answer, followed by an explanation!  Every single parent lit up and exclaimed 'my child would love that!'. Then followed the 'she loves growing things and nature', 'he loves animals of all kinds, he can name all the bugs', 'she loves a mud kitchen and is always covered in mud', 'he loves birds', and 'you can't keep her out of our apple tree!' comments. A few of those I spoke to went off determined to find a Forest School near them, some had already started to Google Forest School on their phone, others were surprised that we provide Forest School IN school. Last month we also had our meetings for Parent's whose children start at our Primary School in September. Forest School is embedded at Chartham so are included in, and provide the venue for, the Welcome Meetings. Here I gave a brief idea of