Mama Beech

When it comes to providing activities and experiences in Forest School we try hard to stick to things that we COULDN'T do inside. This isn't a hard and fast rule, but it is guidance. Taking lots of equipment outdoors doesn't feel child led, nor does it feel too much like Forest School. There will always be information to access and equipment to support exploring, but beyond reference books and sheets, magnifiers, binoculars, and bug pots very little is a staple.  Tools are available, that can just be yarn and scissors, peelers, palm drills, or something that needs much closer supervision. There are digging areas and mudkitchens on each site, swings, and platforms, as well as access to climbing.  We do offer opportunities to weave, tie knots, create a nature table, and plant. We may suggest den building or hide and seek. We will respond to requests for litter-pickers, or pond dipping, or whatever activity on site we can accommodate, with support and with equipment. When a ch...

I have been preaching, repeating myself, whinging, whining, and banging on about Forest School since 2019. This is literally my 200th blog post charting the development, trials, and successes we've had. I try to acknowledge how all provision varies but everything in the blog is totally subjective, from our view point and experiences. It's all we know. In 2018 Chartham Primary School could only fit half a class into the minibus, therefore 15 children went off to swimming and 15 stayed for Forest School. This meant only years 3 and 4 had access to either  and on rotation for a six week set every few terms. The Forest School Leader was also a TA. Resources were few, and while the FSL was enthusiastic and highly capable, there was not time for planning or maintenance or site development...  A situation that's familiar to too many! In 2019 the school decided to invest time and energy into making Forest School something they did well. They committed to focusing on it and employin...

I'm sitting in a friend's dining room with huge mug of tea. She and her family are 'night owls' and I'm definitely an 'early bird'. It's 8am and she and I got to bed about 6 hours ago after a great dinner party and an overdue catch up in her new home. So now, the house is still, I have my cuppa, and I'm silently watching her snow covered garden. There are silent Crows and Magpies flitting up and down from grass to treetops, Sparrows performing aerobatic tumbles, and a Blackbird overturning leaves in pursuit of a sheltering bug, while Goldfinches zip past them at speed.  The snow is a messy mass of footprints, shadowy dips, and piled ridges. None of them human made. I can trace the journey the fox took from right to left along the edge of the patio and back again. I can see scurrying marks and holes the squirrels have left, and an assortment of pigeon footprints lead me to wonder if they were joining in with 'Strictly Come Dancing' last evenin...

Many Forest School sessions run within Primary Schools. Trying to keep to the ethos of the pedagogy we know and love while influenced or even pressured, towards doing something very different is not always easy. For those of us who trained while working in education, a career of providing proof of learning is inbuilt. There's an entire philosophical PHD somewhere in the question of whether learning happens without proof! We reduce it down to tick charts, numbers, and letters, and load it as data onto reports and software. Often 'proof' becomes a product, something 'to take home', something tangible that stands solid as evidence of achievement. At Chartham, we don't use Forest School as an extension of what is happening inside. We may offer activities to support what's happening in their themes and topics, and the children themselves frequently bring their new knowledge outdoors and ask questions, act it out, and explore it in a different way. What happens in...

This week I started to assess the students who studied their Level 3 Forest School Leader course with us. Luckily for me, I started close at home with a colleague. I had criteria to focus on as well as an overall impression to form. It wasn't entirely a tick chart, there was room for comment, for justification of opinion, or example of success/failure. This is mostly guidance though, Forest School, like most of life, is a little more nuanced than a 'yes' or 'no'. This became really evident when going over everything with the student afterwards. The ability to assess her own very good session was hampered by provisos on every point. She felt there was more she could have done, more she could have provided, more she could expand... And there probably was, but isn't that true of every session? I've got used to the assessment part of my planning being a shorthand that few others would understand. A quick reference to say how to improve an activity, or to try it ...

Chatting to student Forest School Leaders over the last couple of weeks reminded me just how flexible we have to be as practitioners. Supporting the delivery of training meant describing how Forest School should be according to the six principles , and brought home how much compromise many of us make when we work in schools. Some students have been tasked with setting up a Forest School in their educational setting, some will be taking over existing provision, some will be joining a Forest School 'team', and some lucky folk are setting up independently and can offer full-blown sessions as they see fit! For most of us, squeezing sessions into a school timetable, ensuring staff have breaks, fitting around staggered lunchtimes, the length of a school afternoon regardless of activity, and not interfering with Maths and English... AND considering the size of the school, one form entry may allow for all classes to have some kind of long session a week, but two or three (or more) form...