Forest School

Forest schools are believed to be very beneficial on a child’s learning. The idea came from Scandinavian countries and was adapted and brought in to practice in the UK in the year 2000. Forest schools have been thriving ever since.

Forest schools don’t necessarily take place in a woodland area, one of the purposes of a forest school is to make children aware of their natural surroundings, and this might be any outdoor environment. As forest schools are a safe environment children are able to find their independence through taking manageable risks teaching them to keep themselves safe. This risk-taking ability encourages self-esteem (Knight, 2011). A Danish forest school teaches children about vital life skills such as risk-taking, taking on challenges and how to assess their skills (Williams-Siegfredsen, 2012, p. 12).

Denmark forest school practitioners also believe that the outdoors is very beneficial to a child’s development. It is said to develop their ‘physical, cognitive, linguistic, social and emotional competencies, it also keeps them healthy’. Research has also shown that children who spend more time outdoors have better social skills, are more attentive, obtain fewer infections, have fewer conflicts and better brain function, they also have better language development, and learn more vital life skills (Williams-Siegfredsen, 2012, p. 13).

There are many activities that can be done in a forest school. For early year’s pupils this might include a walk around the wood, pointing out things they see along the way, such as changes that have happened. This teaches the children about the seasonal changes in a year and the habitat in the woodland. They may use tools they take into the wood to explore further, using their senses, or they may collect and take back materials to explore in the classroom. For older pupils activities might include; building dens, digging through earth and exploring the environment.

(School,2008)

An example of an activity which the children can only benefit from within a forest school is in a case study by Clare Lamb. In this case study a class of fifteen pupils had previously been learning about rocks and soil, money, building structures and writing for varying audiences. This is what happened when they took what they had learnt in the classroom into the forest school. Allowing their imagination to run wild, six of them came up with the idea that they would make a ‘meatball’ shop in the woodland. The work they had done in class came up various times; they discovered that the soil can be different colours and therefore questioned the teacher about it, they also made their own money out of leaves and made their own table using wood and pieces of rope. The pupils were able to use what they had leant, and put it into real life contexts (Lamb, 2011). An exercise such as this tests a child’s acquisition of knowledge and develops their confidence in what they have learnt.

Forest schools all over the UK use these techniques in order to improve a child’s learning. From following the example of the Danish forest school approach, we can see the positive effects it has been having on pupils in the UK. Forest schools will continue to thrive in the coming years for children all over the world.

References

Knight, S. (2011). Introduction: Setting the Scene. In S. Knight, Forest School For All. London: Sage.

Lamb, C. (2011). Forest School - A Whole School Approach. In S. Knight, Forest School For All (p. 2). London: Sage.

School, G. P. (2008, January). Goweton Primary School. Retrieved January 2014, from Swansea-edunet: https://swansea-edunet.gov.uk/en/schools/GowertonPrimary/Pages/CMSImageView.aspx?a=6be6b393fabd4e41b3fc22bf2c831eaf&i=0

Williams-Siegfredsen, J. (2012). Understanding the Danish Forest School Approach. New York: Routledge.