"I first heard about Forest Schools in 2012 when I attended a taster session in Little Dalby. This session introduced the ethos of children using the outdoor environment to help with their learning and development, something I'm passionate about, and so I undertook the training to become a Forest School leader.

Taking learning outside the classroom, creating a supportive environment and giving children achievable tasks, enables them to build confidence and self-esteem and learn new skills which, in turn, supports their learning back in the classroom. Forest Schools promotes a child’s holistic development by giving opportunities for development in all these different areas within the same session. For example, working together to build a den gives children the opportunity to develop:

gross motor skills on collecting and joining sticks and branches,

intellectual skills in working out how to construct the den and where it should be situated for the best outcome,

communication and language skills in talking to each other about what they are doing and taking on each other’s ideas,

listening to instructions from an adult,

emotional development through the sense of well being that they may get from working as a member of a team,

self esteem through achieving a goal and producing something they are proud of,

and finally social development through sharing and taking turns.

Forest Schools is about children being able to complete achievable tasks.