Forest Schools
About Herons Forest
The children at school are very lucky to have their own outdoor ‘green space’ known as Herons Forest. During our sessions we try and follow the 6 principles of the UK Forest School community as much as we can.
1 – Our sessions are long term with every single one of our classes having the ability to access the area each week throughout the school year.
2 – Our sessions take place in a natural area to support the development of a relationship between the children and the natural world.
3 – We aim to promote the holistic development of all our children, fostering resilient, confident, independent and creative thinkers.
4 – Our sessions offer children the opportunity to take supported risks appropriate to the environment and to themselves. What is easy for one child will be challenging for another.
5 – Many of our sessions are run by a qualified level 3 Forest School Practitioner Tracy Vise who maintains and develops her professional practice. For those sessions she doesn’t run teachers and staff from individual classes can call for assistance and guidance when needed.
6 – During our sessions we are child led, activities will be offered but it is a child’s choice to take part or not. Children have the chance to lead their own development and learning.
About Herons Forest
The ethos of Forest school is based on a fundamental respect for children and young people and their capacity to investigate, test and maintain curiosity in the world around them. Forest school is based more on the process of learning than it is on the content – more on the HOW than the what.
Children and young people are given encouragement to direct their own learning- through stimulating play in the outdoors or through scaffolding a child learning, but mostly through simply observing how children are in the outdoors.
Significantly, and on many levels, a woodland environment is central in supporting this very dynamic approach to learning ;the passage of time from the changing of the seasons, to the contemplation of an ancient tree; the dynamic nature of an outdoor environment-an infinite source of smells, textures, sounds and tastes; a range of visual stimuli from near to far, high to low, very big to very small.
What Are Children in Herons Forest Going to Develop?
- Builds independence
- Spatial awareness
- Risk management
- Self- discovery
- Exploration of senses
- Team building
- Creativity/Imagination
- Increase motivation to learn
- Social Skills
- Problem Solving
- Increased Self Esteem/Resilience
- Fine/Gross Motor Development
- Cross-Curricular Skills
What we have been up to:
