Evaluation: Forest School Evaluation



I have to admit; my heart was in my mouth when I was told I would be taking part in Forest School Training. All I could picture was a wood with rope bridges, fast flowing rivers & 8 children with special needs literally swinging from the trees! However, I was pleasantly surprised when we met with Brian & he explained what the premise of Forest School was & how it was run. Having completed our 3 sessions in Clandeboye Forest Park, I can honestly say I have enjoyed every minute of it, and see amazing benefits in taking part in this venture.



The Children

As I said, we went with 8 children with special needs and they absolutely loved it! The fact that they were outside, and not confined to a classroom was a huge benefit for them. One boy in particular was so excited every time we arrived at Clandboye estate that he would clap his hands and jump up and down in his wheelchair. When he was in the forest he got out of his chair & explored every inch he could see. He even insisted on wearing his schoolbag on his back like the rucksack Brian had. Another pupil, who struggles very much with shyness and anxiousness, forgot all his bashfulness in the excitement of exploring the forest. He entered into all the activities and was even eager to show what he had discovered.



Due to the nature of our children's special needs, we are extremely safety conscious in school, sometimes to a fault. It was a wonderful experience to allow the children to walk and explore "on their own" while still in the safety of the forest, and with plenty of adult supervision. They were able to experience some independence, both in their own physical movements, and taking charge of their own learning & activities.



Curriculum

Throughout the 3 sessions we explored many areas of the Curriculum. We did Art activities through colour matching, bark rubbing and clay sculpting. We went on scavenger hunts to find items we learnt about in science. We counted & measured different items. We talked all about our experiences on the way back to school, and told people the next day about what we had done. We even sang songs in the forest. The children had a picnic lunch every time we were there, and discussing the importance of hand washing and keeping food safe and clean brought PDMU into our experience. Back at school we conducted a couple of sessions where we measured ourselves against trees & the wall of the school. During one of our sessions we built dens from bamboo sticks, pegs and tarpaulins. This was an amazing way to bring science and technology into our learning, and also help increase the children's imaginations. One of the dens had 2 rooms added on each side, and another even had a patio! I plan to have my class sequence pictures to show the construction of the dens, and possibly even create stories about the people/animals who could live there. I am excited to be able to plan more forest school activities next year, and actually bring it purposefully into the plans for the rest of the Curriculum.



Me

This was a massive learning curve for me, both personally and professionally. I was taught how to lead forest school sessions, given lots and lots of ideas for activities to do during those sessions, and of course had the time and opportunity to experience leading one myself. I think one of the biggest things I learnt from my forest school experience was how to relax and take my hands off during the time my pupils were exploring and learning. As a teacher we are trained to keep control of our classes, remove as much risk as possible, and enable children to learn what we want them to learn. While these principals are still important in forest school, it was just as important to learn how to let the children explore and make discoveries on their own. Sometimes this involved being near low hanging branches, picking up prickly pine cones, and having all the children away from me at once while they looked at the very edges of the boundaries. Learning how to relax and allow these adventures to happen, while still fulfilling my role as a teacher and keeping my children safe and learning, was an amazing thing to accomplish.



The School

Of course an advantage to both myself and the school was the fact that I am now trained in how to run forest school sessions, and I plan to use this training as much as possible next year. The wonderful kit bag we were given was amazing, with every resource we could possibly need to run forest school sessions. It was also a wonderful opportunity to show the school how we were able to teach our children to manage their own risk, and not feel like we have to remove every risk we see in order to keep them safe. Thankfully we had no accidents or incidents at all during our any of our sessions.



The community

An unexpected benefit of Forest School has been the benefit to our community as a whole. My pupils have been going home and telling their parents about what they have been doing, and this has increased interest among our families to go out and spend more time outdoors. They have already asked about places they can take their children to, and where to buy things like the tarpaulins we used to build dens.



If I had been given a choice of activities to do this year, I must admit Forest Schools probably would not have been high up on my list of priorities. However, seeing the benefits to the children, the school and even to myself, I am so delighted I completed it. It is an amazing programme and I cannot wait to implement it into our school life as much as we can.

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