Forest School
"Forest school is playing, learning, exploring and risk taking in an outdoor environment"
Meet our Forest School team!
River Raven
Rainbow Rachel
Reindeer Roo
What happens at Forest School?
The Forest School ethos aims to promote childrens’ confidence, social skills, sense of self-worth and emotional well-being in an outdoors environment.
As part of the school curriculum, all children will be participating in Forest Schools at certain points throughout the school year.
Forest School promotes learning through play and allows the child to develop their imagination, learn resilience and resourcefulness, and how to appropriately self-manage risk. These sessions are always child led (to foster independence), long term (to build trust and relationships) and outside (to gain the many physical and emotional benefits from being in nature).
Examples of the things that the children might participate in include: den building, cutting firewood and fire building, crafts such as dream catchers or whistles, tying knots, making rope swings, flora and fauna ID as well as stories and cooking food on the fire.
All activities are risk assessed and the children are taught how to use all tools safely and appropriately. There are also strict rules around the campfire and an adult is always present whilst the fire is lit.
Scroll down to see some activities you could try at home.
Forest School clothing.pdfWhat should my child wear?
We go outside in all weather conditions and it is often unpredictable. Many children find it very cold, muddy and wet as they spend either the whole morning or whole afternoon outside for their sessions.
For Forest School your child should come to school dressed in a black tracksuit with appropriate underlayers for the season. Thermal long sleeve tops/trousers are great underlayers (River Raven wears 4 layers in the winter and 2 pairs of thermal socks!).
Your child should then bring a warm, waterproof coat and waterproof trousers (ski/salopette style are ideal), a spare pair of thick warm socks (no trainer socks or thin ankle socks), a change of footwear (snow boots/wellies) and gloves/scarves/hats. Your child will need these clothes each week of the term that their house is participating in Forest Schools. Jeans, sandals, shorts, strappy tops are not allowed to be worn.
When will my child be doing Forest School?
All children will participate in Forest School for two separate half terms throughout the year. They will have 1 session a week during that half term. Please see year group timetables for further information about when your child will experience Forest School.
Timetables can be found here - Term dates and the school day.
Little Forest School and Nature Tots Messy Play sessions
Come and join us for an exciting opportunity to experience weekly Forest school sessions at either our Little Forest School or Nature Tots Messy play sessions. These parent and child sessions will give you a fun introduction to the principles of Forest school whilst learning how to explore the nature around us. Get in touch for more details.
littleforest@castlehillprimary.org.uk
Rainbow Rachel shares the importance of sensory play:
Sensory play is play that stimulates any of a child’s senses, builds cognitive skills and influences how your child learns about their world. Sensory play encourages learning through exploration, curiosity, problem solving and creativity. It helps to build nerve connections in the brain and encourages development of language and motor skills. Nature can often be your best friend when it comes to sensory play!
River Raven demonstrates some Forest School activities to try at home.
Reef Knot.mp4Gods Eye.mp4Nature Creatures.mp4Clove Hitch Knot.mp4Mini Ropeswing.mp4Flower Hearts.mp4Happa Zome.mp4What we get up to at Forest School at Castle Hill:
Whole School Forest School Overview
FS year plan of work.docxPlease contact Jo Raven-Lloyd or Rachel Johnson to find out more about our Forest School.
