Forest School
As part of our investment into outdoor learning we are committed to providing forest schools sessions to all our children throughout the year. We have two fully trained forest school teachers who run the sessions weekly. Each half term a class is taken out to Heaton woods to engage in a range of fun, team building and confidence building activities.
Forest School is a way of learning in a woodland environment where people of all ages and abilities can develop socially, emotionally, physically and spiritually through play and following individual and preferred learning styles. Forest School is enjoyable and fun, promoting responsibility and respect for oneself, each other and the environment. It is a response to modern living – an alternative learning area inspiring the building of competencies and the development of independence, confidence and self-esteem. In an age when many children have few opportunities to be outdoors, it offers them a practical way to learn and experience a full curriculum in a woodland environment.
Through regular sessions in the same area of woodland with the Forest School Leader, children can develop:
- personal confidence, self-esteem, communication and social skills
- a wider range of physical skills than those developed indoors
- a greater understanding and awareness of their own natural and made environments their natural motivation and positive attitude to learning.
One of our favourite activities is climbing trees in Heaton Woods. There are some great trees to climb, as you can see. Mr Collins made sure we didn’t go too high!
