Outdoor Learning

The Best Kind of Classroom

This is the best kind of classroom,

No walls, just sky and trees.

This is the best kind of classroom,

No radiators, just a gentle breeze.

This is the best kind of classroom,

It’s journey through time and space.

From the smallest seed to the largest tree,

This is a forest and a learning place.

This is the best kind of classroom,

Where seasons don’t happen in books.

Where the learning is watching and thinking and talking

And everyone notices – everyone looks.

Ian MacMillan

Forest School is a unique way of building independence and self-esteem in children and young people.  By encouraging and inspiring individuals through positive experiences and motivating achievable tasks and activities in an outdoor environment, pupils are given a good foundation for future learning.

Pupils are able to experience the outdoors in a safe and supportive environment whilst enjoying a unique learning experience. A high adult to pupil ratio allows them to undertake tasks and play activities that challenge but do not put them at undue risk of harm. Forest School is led by leaders who are trained in Forest School techniques and have a valid First Aid Certificate.

The Forest School site is within the school grounds in a small secure woodland area. Sessions are held weekly, throughout the year, therefore, experiencing all weathers and the changing season. Each session follows a routine, starting with a group activity and also including a drink and snack. Sessions are flexible enough to allow child led learning. Activities can be curriculum linked to most subjects;

What is Outdoor Learning?

Outdoor Learning is different to Forest School as this is where you use being outside to develop and enhance a lesson focused on the curriculum. Looking for patterns or shapes in a book compared to finding the shapes out in the real world helps build upon our learners understanding and fluency. Trying to describe or write a poem without being out and experiencing what it is you want to say won’t help improve our learners skills

 What is Forest School?

Forest School is more than just being outside and not in class. It is designed to use a regular session outdoors in a woodland and allowing through learner led activities to develop confidence, resilience, independence and creativity. It also allows for learners to feel safe enough to take more choices that could put them that can expose them to risk and feel comfortable with the feeling.

 What a Brooke Forest School session looks like?

For each session we will have a welcome circle moment, where we introduce the activity and have some sensory time out in the woodlands. There is then time to explore the area normally with a task such as a colour hunt, firewood collecting or a story trail. This allows the learner to explore at their own pace throughout the area.

During our sessions here at Brooke we use a scheme called Wild Passport. This provides 5 areas of Forest School to work with, Fire, Shelter, Nature, Rope and Woodcraft.  These activities are the main feature of Forest School. We will learn how to use the tools,  identify trees, tie knots, put up dens and shelters, lay fires and cook on them to name but a few of the activities.

Throughout the time at Forest school there are also a wide range of child led activities such as water play, weaving, minibeast hunts, reading books, number activities all aimed at developing skills from the classroom  and enhancing their time out in Forest School. 

• making bird feeders
• investigating flora and fauna
• learning about changes in the outdoors
• interactive and imaginative story telling
• art using natural materials
• making and using tools
• tracks and trails
• tree measuring
• campfire cooking

How will pupils benefit from Forest Schools?

• A safe, relaxed and well supported environment to build esteem and access a broad curriculum
• Experience the outdoor environment and the importance of boundaries
• Working with natural materials
• Taught to use tools appropriately and safely
• Encouraged to look after the outdoor environment

Promotes the development of confidence and self-esteem and is flexible enough to enable independent learning as well as building teamwork skills

• Learning to investigate and work co-operatively
• Use natural materials to enhance their learning in a variety of curriculum areas.
• Lots of fun!