Day One

The day began with a meet and greet session and a discussion about Forest School and its benefits.


Forest School - What is it and what are its impact and benefits

“Children learn how to make good decisions by making decisions, not by following directions” - Alfie Kohn

Forest School is a long term process, which is all year round and in all weathers.

It is an inclusive programme that allows participants to learn in a natural environment and develop a sense of place, respect and connection with their surroundings

Forest School promotes holistic learning and development in which children take responisbility for their own learning


Forest schools help children and young people to:

• Become self aware and self motivated 
• Manage risk and make decisions 
• Be empathetic and develop strong social and communication skills 
• Become independent thinkers and learners 
• Develop self confidence and build self esteem 
• Be calmer and self disciplined 
• Develop greater concentration and problem solving skills 

Forest School Activities


Activities can be structured to meet a whole host of objectives:

• Sensory learning 

• Environmental learning 

• Imaginative learning 

• Physical play and development 

• Natural Art 

• Construction and design 

• Bushcraft skills 

• Woodcraft 

• Foraging 

• Firelighting and cooking 

• Woodland flora and fauna

We set out to identify a variety of trees and with the aid of reference books evaluate their suitability as a learning resource.

Example - Beech Tree

+ Can be used for leaf and bark identification

+ Leaves and beech nuts are edible

+ Fallen branches can be used for shelter building and tool making

- Deciduous tree so harder to identify in winter

Example - Holly Tree

+ Leaves, bark and berries can be used for tree identification

+ Evergreen so can be identified by leaves in winter

+ White wood can be used for carving

+ Can be used to teach myths surrounding the holly and promote ideas for storytelling

- Berries poisonous

- Leaves prickly


Practical Skills - shelter building.

We split into pairs and threes and ventured into the woodland to find a suitable position in which to build a shelter.

We had to take into account risks at canopy, field and ground level.

For example:

• Loose branches in the canopy - danger of falling

• Branches at eye level - could spring back into face

• Roots and brambles - trip hazards, prickles

• Insects - stings or bites

We had to consider what impact our shelter would have on biodiversity by for example trampling plants, disturbing leaf litter etc.

We originally chose to build a survival shelter between two trees by placing a branch between them and then building up sticks either side. After a short while, we decided that the site for the shelter was too exposed and the positioning of the trees did not allow for the building of an adequately sized shelter.

We moved to a new position where there was a fallen tree which had up earthed a mound of soil at its roots.

We redistributed the soil to fill in the space between the fallen trunk and the ground. This provided a strong back wall to the shelter. We then used a long branch to create a beam on which to build up the roof from sticks and leaf litter.

The end result was rather pleasing!

With more time we would have added extra thatching to the roof and possibly build part of the front of the shelter in to make it more weather proof.

We chose to keep the shelter roof low down to minimise heat loss.