Forest School

At Bridgewater Park, we pride ourselves on offering our pupils the opportunity to take part in forest school activities. Forest school has many benefits for children and young people, all of which is backed up by research. Forest school allows pupils to experience outdoor learning and, over time, leads to an increase in their own self-belief, confidence, learning capacity, enthusiasm, communication and problem-solving skills and emotional wellbeing. 

Forest school is a child-centred learning process that offers pupils the opportunity for holistic growth. The process helps and facilitates more than knowledge-gathering, it helps learners develop socially, emotionally, spiritually, physically and intellectually. It creates a safe, non-judgemental, nurturing environment for learners to try stuff out and take risks. Forest School inspires a deep and meaningful connection to the world and an understanding of how a learner fits within it. Our approach to risk means that learners constantly expand on their abilities by solving real-world issues, building self-belief and resilience. We believe that risk is more than just the potential for physical harm, but a more holistic thing; there are risks in everything we do, and we grow by overcoming them. Forest School, therefore, helps participants to become healthy, resilient, creative and independent learners.

For further information on the benefits of forest school, please click on the link below: 

https://forestschoolassociation.org/what-is-forest-school/  

 

Forest School at Bridgewater Park

Ethos

The Forest school ethos is based on a fundamental respect for children and their ability to instigate, investigate and maintain curiosity in the world around them. It believes in children’s rights to

Vision and Values

Forest School is an approach to education that makes use of the outdoor environment as a unique tool to support children with their learning and development. Forest school provides varied opportunities for children to access supportive curriculum that can help children build positive values and attitudes about themselves, about learning and about the environment in which they live. Children are challenged through a diverse range of tasks to build confidence, skills and independence. The children are given time to explore their thoughts feelings and relationships. This time allows for reflection and allows children to develop interpersonal skills. The forest school at Bridgewater Park aims to provide:

· Inspiration to be curious, interested and creative

· Opportunities to be challenged and learn to assess their own risks

· The chance to develop imagination and resourcefulness

· The freedom to explore a variety of experiences through feeling, behaving and interacting with others

· The physical , mental and emotional space to be active and interactive

Bridgewater Park Forest School

Over the past few months I have followed the children’s interests in making nature clay faces, making bird feeders, den building, mini beast hunts, bird watching, tree rubbings and knot tying.

The first session with Bridgewater work was certainly a wet one! I introduced the rules to some children and revisited them for others, we identified hazards in the environment before exploring. Although our main focus was rules.

The second Forest school session was all about team work, I set challenges in teams and the children had to work together to solve problems and work efficiently. It was lovely to hear the encouragement and support the children had for their own team.

For our third session, I gave the children the chance to explore independently. It was lovely to take a step back and listen to them support one another and interact positively with their peers away from the Classroom. The children were creating pictures using natural resources and managing risks through tree climbing and den building.

What to wear for Forest school in all seasons

Forest School runs in all weeathers, we are outdoors with the children come rain or shine! Here is a parent guide to the forest school clothing that we recommend for activities throughout the year.

Summer Clothing

Children are active on forest school days, and warmer weather means they don’t want to be weighed down with clothing.

· Comfortable long trousers or leggings

· A t-shirt long or short sleeved on their top half. We recommend a long sleeved one as that’s better for protecting their skin against sunburn , mosquito bites and scratches.

· A jumper – ideally a lighter fleecy one and nothing you would worry about getting damaged or muddy!

· Socks

· Shoes or wellies – closed toe shoes not sandals, crocs or flip flops

· Sun hat – A good hat will stay on, even when your child is active!

· It can still rain in summer, so it helps to have waterproofs available. Our setting can provide them if children do not have any.

· Spares! Always send your child to forest school with spare clothing.

Winter Clothing

A winter forest school session is a lot more fun with the right clothes! Cold weather can make being outdoors more of a challenge if you aren’t dressed correctly.

· Thermal or warm leggings, tights

· Warm trousers

· A long sleeved top

· A sweater

· Socks

· A warm coat

· Hat and scarf

· Gloves

· Spare clothes

· Wellies

Spring and Autumn

Spring and Autumn feel quite similar in terms of weather, so the kit list is the same for both seasons. Expect rainy weather and some colder months, but be prepared for anything!

· Comfy trousers

· Long sleeved t-shirt

· Jumper

· Light warm jacket

· Rain coat

· Closed toe shoes

· Spares

 

Other things to pack

Make sure you send your child with a named water bottle as well!