What happens in Forest School?
Genesis 2:15 Good News Translation (GNT) of the Bible
“Then the Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden
to cultivate it and guard it.”
Forest school activities
Because forest school learning is child-directed, the scope of the activities that can take place is enormous. Typical activities include:
Keeping children safe
The idea of letting young children experiment with knives and fire might sound scary, but safety is paramount during forest school sessions. Our leaders have a Level 3 Forest School qualification, which covers essential safety training such as risk assessment and food hygiene.
Although children are encouraged to assess risk for themselves, this is always with close adult guidance. Before an activity, they will sit in a circle and talk about how the children think they can stay safe. Our forest school leaders do a lot of safety talks before they use any tools, and supervision is tight, with adults observing each child and tailoring the activity to their own ability. Staffing levels are high, for some activities, children are even supervised one-to-one.