and Forest Friends

Quote: 'Why count plastic cubes in the classroom when you can count leaves outside?'

"Forest Schools, is an inspirational process, that offers children and young people opportunities to achieve, develop confidence and self esteem, through hands on learning experiences in a local woodland environment" (definition by ‘Forest Schools England')

Forest Schools is a Scandinavian approach to outdoor learning which is child-led and involves repeated experiences in the outdoors. Forest Schools has recently been piloted in Norfolk with Reception and key stage 1 pupils. Forest Schools approaches have been used with a variety of ages throughout the UK and overseas, and colleagues in Norfolk were keen to explore the potential of Forest Schools when working with older pupils. Erpingham VC Primary School has been using Forest Schools with their youngest class (Years R, 1 & 2) since September 2006 and with their older pupils since April 2007.

We have a number of Forest School trained staff. Mrs Poole is our Forest School leader and holds a Level Three qualification. Mrs. Whitam and Mrs. Rowe are Level One trained.

Learning Objectives:

To work well with other people in pairs and small groups,
Make informed and safe choices,
To look at images and describe what happened in Forest School,
To use practical experiences to supporting learning in the classroom.

We have looked at the work of Andy Goldsworthy. We then used some of the resources that we could find in Forest School to make our own artwork in his style.

Mud! Autumn in Forest Schools

Tree climbing

Shelter Building picture frames

Snow in Forest Schools Pond Dipping Platform