At St Andrew’s Church of England Primary School, we believe it is vital for our children to gain experience from the natural world. Over the past three years we have created a fantastic outside learning space in our Forest School.
Our younger children access this area frequently, whilst our older children use it when it appropriately links to their topic.
We also have an after-school Forest Club, which runs at the beginning of the Autumn term and throughout the summer term.
What is Forest School?
Forest School empowers children and young people to take responsibility for their own learning and development. The ethos encourages child-led learning and learning through play. The natural environment provides stimulus for all senses, all areas of development and all learning styles; visual, auditory and kinesthetic.
Forest School encourages the children to follow their own line of enquiry and interest. This may, for example, be:
- exploring natural art;
- science investigations such as; “How many species of life are supported by the woodland?” “What different plants can I find?” “How does the environment change over time?” etc;
- investigating the invertebrates and insects found
- building bug homes;
- developing shelters, bird feeders etc;
- identifying different plants;
- enjoying camp fire activities – cooking and story telling;
Essentially our Forest School provides the children the time and space to be themselves, find peace and communicate with others in a safe and caring environment.
It also helps our children to connect with the natural world and helps them reflect upon their care and responsibility towards it.