Mama Beech

Seasonal Adjustment Disorder is something that I've never had to struggle with. I love all the seasons. Each has it's own personality, joys and faults! Sheffield Pk Gardens My favourite season is probably Autumn. As Summer fades, the sun lingers low in the sky and the light becomes golden and shadows streeeeeeetch! Trees turn orange and yellow and red, and a carpet of rust and gold and coffee-coloured leaves builds on the ground. The first frost sparkles. Warm breath steams the air. We're not quite there yet, Summer is lingering this year. The mild weather since the Equinox has allowed exploring the gradual changes of the season to play out in sunshine. It also means leaving the house with boots and jumpers, with coats and thick socks to hand, and heading home in an overly hot car, with the a/c blasting, most of your clothes stuffed into a bag, and feeling somewhat boiled from the climbing temperature. I don't mind piling on layers of clothes in Winter, I love the crisp...

Most of the time I keep this blog quite light. Generally, I assume I'm preaching to the converted, and the people who pop by and read this don't need convincing that Forest School has many benefits, although occasionally, I do add links to research and bang on a bit about some aspect or another.  There is no real 'aim' of this blog except to document what we do and how. It's a record of tried and tested successes and failures that we've learned from, and a little bit of an explanation as to why we do it at all.  The start of a new school year is a huge learning curve for children. Six or seven weeks away from the routine of school means the children need to re-engage with school life, moving up a year alters expectations, and being a little older assumes a little more maturity, but each class has gone back to the start of being in year 1, or year 2, or year 3, etc, and has a path ahead of them to become settled 'old hands' at being in their year group. S...

Well, the British weather has done it again. It's waited until the school summer holidays ended before blooming into a heatwave!  It's been a challenging return to timetable. The heat hasn't entirely been through direct sunshine, most mornings have been misty and ethereal, and the afternoons hazy, but the humidity... Ugh! Even beneath the trees there has been little respite, and when the sun does break through, the temperature inches up a few degrees more! When I first started working in Kent I was surprised how few of the children experienced their local environment away from school. We're based in a semi rural area and are surrounded by farmland. There are sheep at the bottom of the street, fields all around, woodland nearby, and a river coursing through. Like Scilly children, our pupils have access to hedgerows and trees, grasses and crops, rivers and (a bus ride away) the sea. But not as many of them explore it. The safety of the Scilly Isles lies in its community. ...

This year Summer has been varied weather-wise, the UK has had 4 seasons in 3 months with mini heatwaves, frost, storms, rain, and hosepipe bans! The Scilly Isles were no exception, and the fortnight that covered Forest School managed sunburn and horizontal rain! However the islands remain beautiful, and the children continue to enjoy a childhood that most no longer have the chance to! The islands are small, only 2300 inhabitants, which must triple when tourists arrive! About 200,000 people visit each year,and the vast majority of those will choose the summer months. However, thus small community means everybody knows everybody else. Children are definitely raised by 'the village', and while nowhere is 100% safe, the Isles are as safe as you are likely to get. Children are pretty much free range. The Scilly Isle is made upmof 140 'island' at low tide, some are home to wildlife, some are large rock formations, five are inhabited islands, with a few more housing a few isol...