The Forest School Ethos ...
A Forest School is an innovative educational approach to outdoor play and learning.
British Forest Schools have been developed and adapted from the original concept implemented in Sweden in the 1950’s. Here in the UK and it is becoming increasingly recognised that this ‘outdoor’ approach to play and learning can have a huge positive impact on the normal development of children.
The philosophy of Forest Schools is to encourage and inspire individuals of any age through positive outdoor experiences. By participating in engaging, motivating and achievable tasks and activities in a woodland environment each participant has an opportunity to develop intrinsic motivation, sound emotional and social skills.
These are some of the benefits the Forest School offers children:
- Opportunity for children to direct their own learning, have a voice and make informed choices
- Outdoor learning that motivates children to develop values, attitudes and skills
- Becoming responsible and understanding consequences of their actions leading to safety and risk awareness appropriate to their age
- Positive teacher attitudes increasing children’s self-esteem, emotional intelligence and learning potential
- Allowing individual children to learn in the best way for them, which significantly impacts on behaviour
Eden Forest School ...
We are aiming for the Eden Forest School to provide a pleasant, natural, fun and less-stressful environment for children to grow stronger social skills by working in groups while building self-esteem and confidence in their own capabilities.
The Forest School Site ...
Eden Forest School has been developed within a privately owned piece of farmland, just a few minutes walk away from the nursery. To begin with it was just piece of land, a blank canvas; over the last year we have worked very hard to get it ready for Forest School. We have planted hedgerows to form a natural boundary around the area, made mud mounds, created a wood pile bug habitat, sunk tyres into the ground to create a climbing area, made a maze pathway and dug out the fire pit area. We are continuing to add to the site to develop it further over the next few years.
What will your child do at Forest School?
To begin with, the children will have introductory sessions at Forest School with activities aimed to help them become confident and comfortable in the environment. As time goes on the children will chose their own activities and lead their own learning to get the most from each session. They will dig, climb, explore, search for bugs and insects, make potions and mud pies, play games and most of all HAVE FUN AND GET DIRTY!!!!
14 Nov 2011