As part of our weekly provision our children benefit from attending Forest school Sessions.
Forest school is a child-centered inspirational learning process that offers opportunities for holistic growth through regular sessions. It is a long-term program that supports play, exploration and risk taking, developing social skills, and focuses on turn taking and problem solving. Predominantly all the activities are learner led, where it is appropriate to do so. Our children really enjoy cooking and woodcraft activities. The children learn to make healthy life choices and acquire a range of basic skills for life. During the Forest school sessions we are using Wild Passport as a way to monitor and assess the skills and knowledge of the learners, and to map their progression and attainment. The Wild Passport framework lists progression of skills for acquisition and some learners find it useful to see what skills they need to develop to achieve within that framework. We constantly adjust activities in accordance with the weather and the group's dynamics.
During each session there is an opportunity to reflect upon the learning process and we encourage and teach children to think about their next steps in learning.
Our Forest School sessions are run by a qualified Forest School Leader, who holds a Forest School Leader Certificate and the Therapeutic Skills for Outdoor Leaders Certificate. All our sessions are thoroughly risk assessed and ratios are managed as required.