Forest School Philosophy
Forest School is a child-centred, play-based approach to learning. It develops children’s confidence, self-esteem and communication skills through hands-on, active learning. During Forest School, children drive their own learning through their natural desire to play and explore. Forest School gives the children further opportunities to develop skills that can be at times be hard to teach in the classroom such as: independence, responsibility, negotiation, team work, managing risks and problem solving. Forest School provides children with a sense of freedom and teaches children to appreciate the outdoors.
For practitioners, before entering Forest School it is important to ask yourself these important questions:
- Why are we going outside?
- What do we hope the children to achieve?
- What is my role?
This is vital, as at Forest School, it is not the resources that we offer the children that sculpt their learning, it is how we sensitively interact with them.
Forest School at HLC
Forest School is a child-centred, play-based approach to learning. Our children (Nursery- Year 2) visit our Forest School weekly where they develop their confidence, self-esteem and communication through hands-on, active learning.
At HLC, our children love going outside and take an active role in caring for and looking after our environment. At Forest School our children learn all about the different insects, their habitats and what happens to them throughout the seasons. We learn how to take care of the wildlife we have and how to encourage more to come.
During Forest School, our children drive their own learning through having the space and freedom to play and explore, alongside developing skills such as their: independence, responsibility, negotiation, team work, managing risks and problem solving.
The Forest school area is used to support cross curricular learning for all our children at school.
