Evaluation: Evaluation of Forest School -- Andrea Lyttle



I first became aware of Forest School when I attended an information session delivered by Brian Poots at Mill Stand Integrated Primary School. Unfortunately, our Council is not yet on-board with the scheme and at that time the school did not have any funding available for the training. Thankfully last year a source of funding became available and I contacted Brian to find out if we could access training as a Post-Primary School -- happily he said yes!!



The whole experience has been very worthwhile for both the staff and the students who took part. The students selected to take part were in Year 8, two of the students have ASD and several have moderate learning difficulties. None of the students had any experience of Forest School before the training began. 3 members of staff were involved in the training -- a Geography teacher, Science teacher and an Art teacher with a background in outdoor education. A classroom assistant also accompanied the group -- she had a background in Early Years education and was used to working outside of the classroom with younger children. All members of staff involved in the training were committed to learning outside of the classroom and were aware of the Forest School approach but had no formal experience of it. In particular, I wanted to see if the Forest School approach could be used in the Post-Primary setting. I have recently completed a MEd and my dissertation focussed on the provision of learning outside of the classroom in Northern Ireland and the difference in provision between Primary and Post-primary. The results of the study would suggest that there is a difference in the provision of learning outside the classroom activities between Primary and Post-Primary settings. I found that within the Post-Primary setting learning outside the classroom is not as common as it would be in the Primary setting. The study found that there was a desire to provide learning outside the classroom at all levels Post-Primary, however this desire decreased as the age of the student increased and they began to become involved in preparing for examinations. To my mind the Forest School approach would provide the perfect vehicle for the delivery of learning outside of the classroom.



As a Science teacher I am used to taking students outside to participate in practical work -- however Forest School lessons are a very different beast! I noticed the difference in "teacher led" and "student led" almost immediately and this is something that took me out of my comfort zone. I had to learn to step back and allow the students to "fail" at tasks -- something that I initially struggled with -- however, I can now see how important this is in terms of the learning that takes place. I was also struck by how much off track some of the sessions went and how this was ok! This reinforced the importance of building flexibility into sessions and being able to adapt what you are doing to where the students want to go -- again something that I wasn't initially comfortable with!



The sessions delivered were all appropriate for the age group that we were working with. During the sessions they were all engaged and all of the sessions resulted in thumbs up from everyone! I asked the students at the end to tell me in a sentence what they thought about the whole experience. Here are some of their responses:



"Good as long as it is dry miss"; "It was perfect, my favourite bits were Brian and the big stick"; "Awesome! The shelter building was my favourite"; "Good I liked the freedom to do stuff on my own"; "Fun, I learned stuff without knowing it"; "I loved it but wanted longer sessions"

I think it is clear from what they have said that they enjoyed the sessions and all gained from them. I believe that this group has shown that the Forest School approach is indeed appropriate to use in Post-Primary school.



As a school we are lucky enough to have an area of "forest" on the school grounds and we have been looking at ways of utilising this to benefit not only our own students but also those who attend our local feeder primary schools. Forest School has provided us with the perfect way to do this. In order to use the Forest to its full potential we will need to begin a management program and this is something that we will need to seek help with -- perhaps from the local conservation volunteers. Beginning next year, we hope to use our training in two ways. We want to show other Staff the potential that the Forest School approach can have to enhance their own teaching and intend to run an afterschool Forest School club to facilitate this. I would also hope to be able to show members of other departments, who are not used to taking students outside of the classroom to learn, that there are great benefits to doing so -- perhaps by taking some of their classes outside. We also intend to invite children and teachers from local primary schools to attend 6 week blocks of Forest School sessions at NCIC -- this would also help to build links with the feeder schools in the area.



We very much hope that the training we have completed is only the start of our journey into Forest School. All who participated in the training benefited from it and are fully committed to taking the provision of Forest School forward not only within the school but also within the community. I also would have no hesitation in recommending the Forest School training and approach to other Post-Primary schools.

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