Crick Primary School

Forest School

Forest School is a child-centred inspirational learning process, that offers opportunities for holistic growth through regular sessions. It is a long-term program that supports play, exploration and supported risk taking. It develops confidence and self-esteem through learner inspired, hands-on experiences in a natural setting.

Forest School has a developmental ethos shared by thousands of trained practitioners around the world, who are constantly developing their learning styles and skills to support new and imaginative learners. Its roots reach back to the open-air culture, friluftsliv, or free air life, seen as a way of life in Scandinavia where Forest School began. It arrived in the UK in 1993 and has grown from strength to strength since then.

The process helps and facilitates more than knowledge-gathering, it helps learners develop socially, emotionally, spiritually, physically and intellectually. It creates a safe, non-judgemental nurturing environment for learners to try stuff out and take risks. Forest School inspires a deep and meaningful connection to the world and an understanding of how a learner fits within it. Our approach to risk means that learners constantly expand on their abilities by solving real-world issues, building self-belief and resilience. We believe that risk is more than just potential for physical harm, but a more holistic thing, there are risks in everything we do, and we grow by overcoming them. Forest School therefore, helps participants to become, healthy, resilient, creative and independent learners. (https://forestschoolassociation.org/what-is-forest-school/)

At Crick Primary School, our Forest School is expertly led by Mrs Morris and Mrs Tull. Several years ago, it was decided to roll out Forest School across the whole school with each class attending Forest School sessions on a Tuesday morning for one term. Our Reception class continued to attend Forest School sessions every Thursday morning.

For this coming academic year the following timetable has been set, this is to ensure the children experience the different seasons throughout their Forest School sessions over their time at Crick Primary School:

Forest School so far this year 2024-25

Reception - All year

Reception love going to Forest School every week. Some of the things we have loved are; bark and leaf rubbing, rocking in the hammock, making potions, lying on the ground and appreciating the world around us, making dens, digging in and rolling down the compost heap, making tipis for woodland creatures, climbing trees and playing lots of games! The children have become more and more confident as the weeks have gone on. Here are just a few photos from our time at the woods so far....