Forest School Sessions

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A series of individual and team challenges that focus on the senses and elevate the environment around them. Removing one sense can
heighten another. We realise how important our senses are and learn to trust them. When was the last time you simply sat in a woodland for ten minutes and took in all that was going on around you?
 

Whether a dragon has destroyed a goblin village and the village needs rebuilding, or simply that the forest bugs need somewhere to unwind and socialise at the end of the day, or the fairy queen is in need of new, naturally made potions for her apothecary, or the rainbow caterpillars have left a trail to a treasure chest, or the Olympic stick dancing team need to showcase new moves, the squirrel lords need to build new boats to sail away in – the only limit is the imagination. 

These sessions are more practical in nature and allow children to
operate tools safely and successfully.
Shelters can be built from purely natural resources, or they can be built with a series of ropes and tarpaulins. Shelters require a basic grasp of structural engineering, and sessions can be broken down or allowed free reign.
If sessions are broken down, children are shown a variety of suitable knots and simple shelter ideas and asked to build away. They can also make tent pegs out of a single tree trunk or log that will assist in the structural integrity of the shelter.

Use of ropes, knots and tools to design and build different types of furniture in natural environments.

Again, using a variety of tools and knot tying techniques, children are shown how, or given free reign to, design and build their own furniture. This can also coincide with multi-sensory and imaginative play. Building a simple photo frame can enable children to capture vistas or points of interest around the woodland. Are there are plenty of things to see.

  Use of natural resources to produce and cook on an open fire, including fire safety and exploring different types of cooking. 

The process of generating, finding, constructing and lighting a fire can be exhilarating. Safety is the single most important part of these sessions and as a result they are more controlled than others.
However, children are given the chance to create their own fire and who knows, even toast the odd marshmallow or hog roast!

  Groups are stranded with nothing but their wits and are required to complete challenges that would enable them to ‘survive’.
Starting with orienteering skills, groups have to locate the basic tools and resources and meet at a rendezvous point. Here they are asked to build a shelter, source water, get a fire going for rescue and food, and (perhaps) create a means of hunting/catching food to eat.