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Forest School

 

I don't have special needs when I'm in the woods

Primary pupil

Forest School provides an inspirational approach that offers all learners regular opportunities to achieve and develop confidence and self-esteem through hands-on learning experiences in a woodland or natural environment with trees.  Children who struggle learning indoors are often enabled to develop new ways of learning and coping with the world.

The ethos of Forest School is based on a respect for children and their capacity to show initiative, investigate and maintain curiosity in the world around them.  It champions a child's right to play; the right to access the outdoors (and in particular, a woodland environment); the right to experience risk in a controlled way in the natural world along with the right to develop their emotional intelligence through social interaction, building a resilience to enable creative engagement with their peers and their potential.

A Forest School encourages children to:

  • Develop personal and social skills
  • Work through practical problems and challenges
  • Learn how to manage failures and promote knowledge learnt through failure, seeing it as part of the journey to mastery
  • Build confidence in decision making and evaluating risk
  • Develop practical skills
  • Regularly experience achievement and success
  • Reflect on learning and experiences
  • Develop their language and communication skills
  • Improve physical motor skills
  • Improve their concentration skills 

Summer - Autumn Term 2023