Mama Beech

Like everything in education, budget dictates. There are lots of projects, schemes, plans, ideas, and pedagogies that schools can adopt to focus on. Many will indeed improve school performance, or children's learning, or make day to day life a little easier for staff. None of them come with a guarantee. All of them require training or membership, a one-off payment or a subscription. When a school considers implementing Forest School it isn't any different. It is true that it is an investment rather than a charge . Whatever is decided upon is introduced to improve an aspect of school. A maths scheme of work to ensure everything is covered. A literacy programme to make it easier for all staff to use the same tools. Buying in PE trainers to improve the activities provided, to outsource the planning, and to cover PPA times for some or all staff. Whatever the cost, the aim is to enhance what the school provides. Forest School is a pedagogy, but sessions are a 'service', boug...

I'm going to assume that most people who read this regularly have some kind of connection with Forest School. They are FS trained to some level, work in or with a FS, have children in a FS, at the very least like  the idea of FS!  There is a lot of good quality outdoor learning across the UK. In some countries, it is more highly developed by Government than others, although I know many in those systems want to see it go further! For instance, lots of people look towards the Scottish drive for outdoor learning with the wistful hope that it will spread south of the border!  But being good doesn't mean you can't be better! Having any kind of Outdoor Provision needs constant review and development, in the same way that learning inside schools never stands still, neither does the opportunity to take learning outside. Early Years/Pre School/0-5 has this embedded in their curriculum, and recent years has seen KS1/infant education push for more learning outside. Personally, I'd...

Because Forest School is more of a pedagogy than a subject it is difficult to 'prove' and track 'progress' in the way the education system expects.  As always the type of setting and what is provided will influence this, and there are ways to document activities and demonstrate increased knowledge, but when based in a school often the developments are inside the classroom and not out at basecamp! If our aim is to foster curiosity, build resilience, and create a better attitude to learning, we will never know how well it is working without feedback from class teachers. I have a 'Progression of Skills' sheet which I use as a list that ensures I cover all skills across a year. The children are invited to investigate each activity, supported in learning, and able to revisit independently or supervised (depending on the activity), but participation is not mandatory! For the last year, ALL our Primary Pupils have been having Forest School sessions, that's approxim...