June 2020

Forest School has become a buzz word in education. It has captured the imagination of teachers, both new and experienced. Parents around the world are feeling the pressure of booking their children some “green time”. During 2020 I studied for a Forest School leadership qualification while working full-time in a traditional education setting. Let’s explore, what all the fuss is about.

Forest Schol is NOT just a case of moving the classroom outside. You can’t tell your learners to bring their textbooks and go and sit under a tree and BAM, you’re doing it! Forest School is an ethos, a pedagogic approach that has key features and underlying principles that make it what it is.  

There are assumptions that Forest School is all about teaching students to build fires, use tools such as hammers and saws, put up tents, and survive in the outdoors. While these aspects can be included in Forest School experiences, and yes, you see a lot of them in marketing photographs for Forest Schools (mostly because they make for really engaging photographs!) it’s not the activities that make Forest School what it is. There isn’t a set list of activities or a curriculum that must be followed in Forest School.  

Another assumption is that Forest School is a kind of a badge that teachers, learners or schools can collect, like a scout badge or a “Language Academy” award. Again, this isn’t the case, it isn’t the location, the activities or even the outcomes that make Forest School what it is; it’s the philosophy and the learning journey.  

I want to also emphasise that there are other kinds of outdoor learning that many schools and learning centres around the world incorporate and they all provide fantastic learning opportunities for the participants.  

The value of learning outdoors and being exposed to nature is not particularly new. Predecessors to Forest Schools include:

Rudolf Steiner, the founder of Waldorf schools,

Maria Montessori, founder of Montessori schools, 

Robert Baden-Powell who ran his first Scout camp in 1907,

Margaret McMillan who opened the Open-Air Nursery School in London in 1914,

The Outward-Bound movement which established its first centre in 1941, 

Groesta Frohm a Swedish educator who in 1957 published about the Skogsmulle concept, a character that leads children in the forest to discover nature and learn about environmental issues. 

In 1966 the Plowden Report claimed all children would benefit from direct experiences of nature. 

In the early 1990s a group of students and teachers from the UK visited Scandinavia and brought the idea of “Forest School” back to the Bridgwater College. In the early days it was mostly focused on by Early Years practitioners and soon the value was recognised by local councils and the Forestry Commission. In the early 2000s the ethos gained traction and formally established itself by defining its key features, setting up practitioner networks, conferences and formal qualifications.  

The danger with some environmental education, for example trips and visits into green spaces, is that city children could start to view nature as “other”, separate from their real lives in the built-up areas. Spending time in nature becomes a visit to a theme park: “Welcome to Nature Land! On your right you’ll see some butterflies and trees, don’t get too close!” The aim of forest school is to allow children to ‘be’ in nature and integrate their own experiences and lives with the natural world.

In much of environmental education connection with nature and the natural world is seen as a product or an outcome of the classroom learning, with Forest School this connection with nature is a primary feature of the learning, it is integrated into the learning. The idea is that the importance of the natural world in our lives should be reflected in the way that our children learn and the way that we, as teachers, teach.

The Key Principles of The Forest School Approach to Learning.  

A Learner-Centred Process 

This is at the heart everything we do in Forest School, the aim is that we invest in the learner so they can be invested in the learning. One of my favourite quotes is

“Nature is the first educator, the child is the second, the leader is third.”

It really puts us leaders firmly in our place! The aim is that learners take the lead in their own development and the adult is there not as an imparter of knowledge but as a facilitator and guide, hence why you'll hear me say Forest School leader or practitioner rather than a teacher.  

Long-Term

2 hours under a tree once a term doesn’t make you a forest school leader. Long-term programmes with frequent and regular visits to the outdoors allow for positive behaviour changes and growth, the learners develop a connection with the space. In the same way that the natural world makes changes slowly, a tree growing or how a stream slowly carving through rock, learning and development in learners takes time. Hence, long term.  

Holistic development and growth

This is the holistic development of everyone, not just the learners but the leaders too! The focus of holistic development is on the whole person; education and knowledge cannot be taken as chunks of a person but need to be considered within the whole. The person, or our learners, can’t be taken out of context but need to be considered as part of a bigger whole and their place within their class, within their family, within their schools, within the communities in which they live, within the whole world.  The belief with holistic education is that a person is more than the sum of their parts and that we can look beyond their intellectual ability. A good acronym for holistic development aspects is PILESS (Physical, Intellectual, Linguistic/Language, Emotional, Social, Spiritual) 

As part of this focus on holistic development and learner centred ethos is the weighting towards play and choice. Learners should be able to explore, discover and take ownership. Their experiences in the space should be freely chosen, personally directed, intrinsically motivated.  

Wild Spaces

The experiences happen in Wild Spaces. I mean, the clue is in the name “Forest”, right? This can mean a jungle, a woodland, generally anywhere where there are trees. It doesn’t have to be an ancient, untouched woodland. Many practitioners around the world have adapted parts of their school grounds, adding native species and incorporating sustainable woodland management into school activities. The reason these spaces are used is because natural spaces are rich spaces, there are many moving parts and open learners up to creative thinking, outside of the restrictions of traditional formal classrooms.

There have been so many scientific studies that show having access to nature has benefits for humans. These range from wide reaching benefits such as reduction in stress and anxiety, improvement in mood, improvement in psychological wellbeing, to more specific benefits such as improvement in concentration and attention, reduction in symptoms of ADHD, a reduction in crime rates, increased immunity. With all that scientific evidence, it almost makes you wonder why we keep young people inside at all!

Supported Risks

It’s often said that “Life is Risk”. If we voluntarily take risks in life we may die, if we do not take risks we may also die. The main reason to take a risk is that we might gain something. For our learners this could be new skills, be they physical or mental skills. By undertaking risks learners develop an understanding of their own limits. These risks are best taken in a safe non-judgmental, nurturing environment. The role of the Forest School leader when setting up experiences for the learners, because we cannot guarantee safety, is to manage the risks and to maximise the potential outcomes such as learning and growth while limiting the adverse effects, physical or mental for the learners. We also need to consider the environmental risks for the learning space. Writing Forest School risk assessments is not a simple process!