Mama Beech

Week 1 getting all 12 'bubbles' outside for a reduced form of Forest School was interesting! We are abiding by our own risk assessment and amended rules and procedure as we go. No bubble has more than 15 pupils in and as every school is finding there are hidden difficulties and sudden incidents that make implementing Social Distancing INSIDE the building difficult at times. OUTSIDE I can confirm it is just as fraught! The space is there for them to move around in, there are multiple trees offering climbing opportunities, but children do like to form groups and interact. Trying to stop them is to go against human nature and requires a lot of discussion, reminding, nagging.... I've said before that part of our assessment is the fact that Covid-19 spreads slower outside. The wind and air circulates the virus quickly and UV light from the sun helps destroy it, so based on the current scientific advice, a 9 acre space with sky for a ceiling and no obvious walls is probably t...

It has been a week of trees, trees and more trees! And it was wonderful! In Forest School children are more confident climbing them, the Junior Foresters are getting more confident identifying them, especially as they have helped sort 210 trees into packs of 10!  We've started on a 4 week schedule where every one of 15 classes will have the opportunity to plant 10 trees each. Year 1 helped to extend the copse where our hidden basecamp lies, with 20 'baby' trees to include an established tree and create an enclosure with a small access gap T he small groups that work towards RSPB challenges (year 4), Woodland Trust Green Tree Award (Year 2), RFS Junior Forester Certificates (Year 3 and Year 5), AND RHS School Garden Campaign levels (Year 5) have already planted one short hedge to form a second barrier in what will be a quiet area, and one longer hedge to guide visitors to the new outdoor classroom and to prevent the younger children simply running straight to...

It's amazing that we are already a third of the way through the school year!  Our RSPB Wild Challenge team have earned a Bronze Award! Our Woodland Trust Champions have also earned a Bronze Award! Our Junior Foresters are half way to their certificate and our Tree Champions are starting on their RFS Certificate. And a new Garden Group are hoping to earn a few levels in the RHS School Gardening Awards! And that is on top of Forest School and all the outdoor learning the classes have planned in for this term! We have achieved a lot - but there's lots more to do! 2020 will see the RSPB Big Schools Birdwatch, and the delivery of new trees from the Woodland Trust to plant. Two groups need to complete their Junior Forester Certificate, we hope to get Silver and then Gold with the RSPB Wild Challenge, AND we'd love to end the year looking forward to some Platinum Challenges with the Woodland Trust in September!  We have also only just started on ou...

The last few days before the Christmas break. Forest School celebrated with campfires and marshmallows and hot chocolate, and as the afternoons began to look more like evening, as dusk made the school day dull early, we decided the rest of the children need not miss out. Every class had the opportunity to come outside to basecamp and to sit by the campfire and listen to a story. For some this may have been the latest chapter in the novel the class is hooked on, for others it may be a book randomly chosen by one of the pupils, for many it was a picturebook with an Autumnal theme. No one is ever too old for a picture book, they differentiate themselves, and every child vies to see the illustrations. The children watched the flames, put up with the smoke, and listened to the tales they were told. A great way to end the year

We knew December would sneak up behind us and ambush us with a Christmas schedule and wavering timetables! But on our last November day we built shelters. It feels like being immersed in a fairytale woods sometimes as the children decide between sticks and bricks to create a den! There is no straw available but the willow whips are flexible enough to create a whole different kind of den too. Moving the bricks unearths a lot of slugs, much to the delight of those prepared to map the silver trail that gives away where the creature has been... Some seem to like their house of sticks akin to AFTER the big bad wolf has been, as a giant nest that promise is "comfy" Other's have bigger plans... Sometimes Forest School is a time for letting everyone do pretty much what they want.  To organise themselves, to cooperate, to explore and experiment, to share, to enjoy, to problem solve, to story tell, to discover, to persevere, to achieve, and to go...