A lot of the time, when asked "What do you do?", we struggle to explain the full scope of our offering. This is often due to the context or location of the question. For instance, when we are in a school setting, delivering a single session of bushcraft skills, it is hard to stray away from that and explain about our work with SEN, SLD, EBD and YOT learners over protracted durations. When delivering natural art, in the style of Andy Goldsworthy, we often forget to mention that it can all count towards the John Muir Award. Add to this our holiday clubs, children's parties, family days and even stag and hen bush craft parties then it gets really hard. The best we can come up with is "It's like a slide rule, with the full scope of what we do being the rule and the bit we are doing now being under the cursor and we don't mind how much or how often you move the cursor". The following list is provided as a high level overview which is likely to trigger requests for information.
This is the "full" forest school experience delivered to learners aged from 3 to 19. We normally deliver it to a whole class but can concentrate on identified groups within that class or across a larger year group. We can deliver in your setting or in one of ours as appropriate. The minimum duration of a forest school engagement is one half day session per week for 6 weeks, or a half term, although some schools book 12 weeks, or a term. Some schools have booked an academic year so that each school year from Y1 to Y6 get a session a week for a half term each. Our forest school sessions are age dependent with their back story but follow the same basic lesson plan which brings about; teamwork and inclusion; listening and following complex instructions; work on the boundary of stretch and stress which strengthens resilience and endurance, both physical and mental; gross and fine motor skill development; bushcraft skills with fire work, knife work and tool work; learners finding out that it is fun to be outdoors for long periods of time. The key to Forest School is a point within the series of sessions where there is a transition from adult lead learning to learner lead learning and a degree of autonomy is observed with teaching staff able to sit back and assess the strengths and weaknesses of their group in a non classroom context.
As a peripatetic service we can build up your setting and leave it for you or we can ensure that it is dismantled and removed at the end of each session or set of sessions as appropriate.
We deliver Forest School to EYFS, Primary and Secondary schools and also to other organisations with special needs, SEN, SLD and EBD, and across quite large age ranges.
We deliver inset days, twilight sessions, non-certificated CPD and taster days for education professionals, based, either, in your chosen setting or at one of our woodlands in Cheshire.
If assistance is required in the development of a Forest School setting in your grounds then we can assist with planting and provision of resources. Pretty much anything that may be required is possible, just ask.
We describe this a Forest School "lite" in modern parlance. It can be a single session or a short series of 3 or 4 sessions. The Forest School key transfer from adult to learner lead learning is not as important, we try, but it's not critical. The main aim of these sessions is to teach a specific skill or set of skills, perhaps linking to a specific topic or curriculum subject in an unusual or alternative way.
We try to ensure that every learner has a token to take home from one of these sessions in the hope that this will stimulate conversation at home and lead to reinforcement of the skill.
Click here to find out more about Baby-bushcraft.
Click here to find out more about Mini-bushcraft.
Mini-bushcraft - A class of Y6 pupils spent a day making dough and lighting different types of fires to cook bread in different ways. The first fire was a star lay and the bread was cooked on bread boards leaned towards the fire and turned as the crust was browning. The second fire was a waffle lay which was used to generate embers for a Dutch oven in which dough balls were baked as rolls. Finally the third fire was a tipi lay which was used to boil a kettle and make hot chocolate rather than cook dough wound around sticks.
Baby-bushcraft - A class of Y1 and Y2 pupils engaged in the story of "Stone Soup" and cooked 2 gallons of rustic vegetable soup outdoors in their school grounds over open fires with cooking pots suspended from tripods over tipi lay fires.
Baby-bushcraft - A very mixed age range of 55 children attended one of our woods and engaged in a huge den building session. This was arranged by Children's Centre staff and Child Minder managers.
Mini-bushcraft -At Cheshire Play Days and other events we set up a fire pit and bead necklace making station where parents and children make bead necklaces followed by marshmallow and chocolate digestive smores.
We like this one and it is a particular favourite when dealing with schools or organisations that are contemplating devising an outdoor learning setting or trying to secure budget for an outdoor learning environment. Instead of spending a fortune on an outdoor building (surely that's just the same as indoors?) we advocate the use of buckets. Not just any old bucket. A special bucket. Normally 10 to 15 litres with a clip on lid. In said bucket is a set of good quality waterproofs and wellies. When needing a seat on wet ground, sit on the bucket. When needing to collect or carry, use the bucket. When wanting to move from one class setting to another, carry the bucket. When it rains, open the bucket and take out the waterproofs. Much more cost effective than building a new outdoor learning facility (unless you have an old terrapin cabin going spare).
Yes we truly love the bucket classroom and will begin implementing it on long term engagements or specifically funded projects.
Click here to see the inspiration.
Within the scope of our sessions we will, if requested, take learners through the various elements required for the Discovery or Explorer award as a matter of course but the Conserver award is a more specialised award requiring a bit more planning and commitment from the learners' parent organisation. Rather then paraphrase the award we link directly to the appropriate pages.
Simply ask us and we will put in place the processes required to have the project recognised by the John Muir Trust and provide each learner with the appropriate record books. At the end of the project we will assess and sign off the award for learners.
Within reason and under health and safety guidelines we can loan equipment that we use to organisations. Should you wish to purchase items that we use then we can normally beat every other supplier on price and will deliver to your door with an instructional session too.
The best thing to do is simply ask. If we haven't got it immediately to hand it'll take us a week to source it.
We discovered this by accident at an EIP National Networking Day and have become great fans, integrating it whenever possible since it feeds off and yet feeds the Forest School ethos of transfer from adult lead to child lead learning. We have a couple of favourite story lines that always work well and can usually bring a class back into line when perhaps for some reason or another their attention has wandered.
Click here to find out about Mantle of the Expert.
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