Mama Beech

Firstly - apologies for no blog last weekend! I knew we had a visitor to help conclude a current chapter in our Child Led experience (see last blog ) and wanted to include it.  LAST week was celebration week  which basically means back to back campfires and 400 children loving life on hot chocolate and toasted Marshmallows! No matter what alternatives I offer - the mallows remain the treat of choice! This term was our first time having simultaneous campfires, one in The Copse and one into the Wildlife Garden - or - one in The Copse and one Under The Trees, as all three Forest Schools are up and running and embedded in the timetable now! My colleagues have found their feet, are developing their sites and their practice, and are forging forward. So it was 12 fires across 3 sites in 4 days with no issues at all! THIS week (just gone), was off timetable and there was some time to catch up on admin, check the site, promote the training we're hosting next May AND invite a visitor in...

It's been a very mixed week.  The children started making art on the floor last week, so this week I gathered resources for them to use.  The option to create patterns and pictures was there for them to explore, with some examples of the work by Hannah Bullen Ryner and James Brunt for inspiration.  Children from all year groups had a go, and when James Brunt responded on Twitter to their photos they were thrilled!  Using Nature's windfalls gave the opportunity to further discuss why we never taste anything we find, as well as the chance to explore the colours of berries and leaves, cones and petals...  It was also the best way to get up close and personal with the properties of these, working out how to incorporate the 3D pine cones and the rolling Hawthorn berries onto a flat surface.  Plus the children we amazed at the berry of the Spindle Tree close up, the colours and the shape. Yes, we know it is poisonous. It's the first thing most children ask abou...

When I switched to two days on site and two days working from home I thought I might get bored.... Whereas over four days I would usually facilitate 14x75min Forest School Sessions, fitting planning and admin in around them, now I have 7 sessions on site and 2 days at home doing the paperwork etc. Adhering to the 'essential travel' only guidance I don't travel 50 miles to use the school computer, and as I have no classroom, just basecamp, I usually open up the laptop in the staff room while at school. Again, I now don't spend any time in the staff room unless it's to grab a cuppa! I don't need to loiter in the building at all. But as we all know, the danger of paperwork at home is that it's not a 9-5 log on! Last week I scanned in over 200 documents at home, old Nature Detective  sheets and other guides, information, and spotter pictures that I have collected over the years, many that I can no longer find online! Having scanned them, I spent the following da...

If you follow the ideals of Forest School then you have to accept that not only do different children take different things away from the experience, but that they require a variety of different experiences to meet their needs. Accepting the 6 principles of Forest School  means you accept the children's freedom to explore whatever they choose to do, even if it seems they make the same choices week in and week out. The main point of children having  TIME,  both in minutes during a session, and in weeks stretched across a year, is to allow them to work through whatever may have them returning to the same behaviour, while offering the opportunity to get involved with many different activities before or after or instead. As I've said before we're running a type of 'Forest School Lite', which has the benefit of allowing the whole school access to Forest School Activities each week, but the disadvantage of only giving some groups about 30 minutes outside. Some time outsid...

Heading into Lockdown AGAIN...! As a Forest School within a Primary School we have managed to be open all the time school has been open. Lots of independent Forest Schools are struggling with regulations and ratios and facilities, and the complication of being a small business grouped in with leisure rather than education. It has been a tough time for them to find ways to provide opportunities for the children and families they work with, while we were free to adapt and move forward. Our Covid-19 Risk assessment is up to date and has worked well so we plough forward with it, reviewing it each time a new activity is introduced or guidelines change.  In order to ensure every class gets to experience Forest School we're running Forest School Lite ! A shortened version that means EYFS through to Year 6, plus two SEND classes, have an outdoor session with the Forest School Leader each week. It is hectic. It's not Forest School in any traditional way, but it is working. The children...