Sian's Assignment

Sian’s Assignment: Forest Schools

Forest schools began in Sweden in 1950’s and developed throughout Scandinavia and European countries. Forest schools were introduced to Britain in 1995 and the first leadership training took place in wales in 2000 and forest schools have made a huge development since. Forest schools give children a chance to work outdoors and enable them to explore the environment and for the national curriculum to be taught in a more open environment. It also allows all areas of intelligence's to receive equal opportunities in learning by stimulating visual, auditory and kinesthetic learners. They are designed to meet the needs of the group involved and normally take place in a woodland area which has risk assessments carried out on it before the sessions take place. There are also risk assessments for individual children with emotional and behavioral difficulties (Knight, S 2011). It is important for the children to understand the natural state of the woods and the dangers that may surround them, it is also important that they do not disturb any of the natural habitats. Sara Knight cited that “Children have access to a large area of woods, complete with fully- equipped tool shed with boxes of equipment gathered from parents and members of the local community” (Knight, S 2011 P34). Children understand the need for the equipment they are supplied with and respect that all equipment should be returned to the right place in the same condition as they found them.

 This image shows a forest school session taking place where the children are all sitting and learning around a camp fire.

Forest schools, encourages and inspires all individuals of all ages to indulge in the outdoors environment. It allows the individuals involved to develop many skills which are a necessity to everyday life such as, space awareness, gross motor skills, negotiation skills, communication skills and movement awareness. It also allows participants to gain a sense of direction and gain confidence in themselves and their social awareness. Taking part in forest schools allows children to improve their independent learning as they are able to explore the outdoors and improve their knowledge. The following link shows a video of a primary school in Oxfordshire which regularly carry out forest schools with their early years. Here we see some regular activities that the children take part in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAR_OTMxNOs

Forest schools can also have an impact on national curriculum subjects such as science. The woodland area can help with the concepts of ‘push and pull’ and also to discover the many different materials that surround them. It can also have an effect on physical education part of the national curriculum as it develops movement skills such as climbing, running and co-ordination. Many secondary schools have now taken to the idea of forest schools. Knight, S (2011) found that boys in particular responded more encouragingly to outside learning when compared to being taught with in a classroom.

REFERENCES

            Knight, S., 2011. Forest school for all. London; Sage