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...

On Sunday we grabbed a boat to Bryher. This island is long and slim and a twin to the more famous Tresco. We went to explore the wildlife and enjoy beach and woodland, plantlife and fauna. The boat trip was in glorious sunshine with sparkling water and blue skies. We got off at Quayside and started a clockwise wander, hugging the coast. We sought out grasses and fungi to ID, as well as  plants and trees to test our knowledge on. It has been a joy to see so much elm around. Obviously, we revelled in the scenery! It cannot be ignored! We also enjoyed a Forest School activity or two... It was lovely to see the subtle differences between the islands, and the bigger differences between the Scilly Isles and the Mainland. On Monday we seized the opportunity to get up close and personal with the wildlife. Namely, seals! We snorkeled for an hour with some very playful creatures who liked to surface alongside us, nibble at the flippers we wore, bump our tummies, and even sit on top of us if ...

Oh my goodness, what a week! We celebrated Save Our Wild Isle Week in so many different ways! In school we were OUT of school, not only taking lessons outside into the great outdoors, such as celebrating the Festival of Holi on the field, but we took opportunities to delve into the nature at Chartham. Classes came outside to explore their immediate environment by doing Tree Surveys (identifying them, measuring them, and getting to know them), some planting, and getting know the wildlife on the grounds. Our regular black & white visitor kept us entertained on the Wildlife Camera Trap... and we learned some interesting things from the pictures... And we deepened the children's understanding of nature INDOORS with eggs to nurture. We're the first to agree that chickens are not wildlife! However, learning to care for all living creatures is essential to dragging the wildlife crisis in the UK back to some semblance of sustainable. In many ways Forest School took a back seat and ...

Last week I pondered how bad campfires actually are for our health. The effect on both the Forest School Leaders spending a lot of time alongside them breathing in heated air, smoke, particles, and any number of possible unknown toxins, and on the developing lungs of children in our care. There are ways to mitigate risks, and a good risk/benefit analysis should make how we practice as safe as we can. There is no way to totally eliminate the pollution of our bodies without saying no to fires completely. The decision has to be up to the individual - but I do think we are heading towards participation being something we need informed parental agreement for. We also need to consider the effect on both our immediate environment and how it affects our carbon footprint. I have a love of woodland... and hills... and mountains... and the coast... and nature... being outside in general! It's one of the reasons I do my job. At home, I try to be as environmentally friendly as I can, in what I...

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...