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Woodland Adventurers® Forest School PLUS
Woodland Adventurers®, Quarry Hill, Box, Corsham, Wiltshire, SN13 0NS

Forest School for
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Forest School for Schools, Pre-Schools and Nurseries

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CPD

Our Forest School PLUS includes everything you would expect from Forest School plus lots more such as:

Farm animals (e.g. pigs, sheep, ducks, geese, chickens)
Beautiful, magical and dedicated private woodland with no public rights of way - the perfect size to enable lots of freedom to explore without being so large that children could become out of sight
More physical and team focus as well as academic subjects
We have experience of over 20,000 children visits to Woodland Adventurers®. We have heaps of experience leading, managing and facilitating small to large groups from babies and toddlers to teenagers and grown-ups.
We have lots of experience working with children with additional / special educational needs (SEN).
Our location in Box, Wiltshire (between Bath, Corsham and Chippenham) is directly linked to Isambard Kingdom Brunel - a fabulous opportunity for extending learning.

Our outdoor activities, by definition, are outdoors! Trees and tarps provide some level of shelter from rain, but generally if it rains we will get wet! It is absolutely essential that all visitors (both children and accompanying grown-ups) come with the right clothing, meaning lots of layers, waterproofs and sturdy footwear (and in the warmer months sun hats and sun cream) as well as a "can do" and "up for it" attitude to maximising the outdoor experiences for all, especially the children.

Our Forest School and Forest School PLUS

Think back to your school days. What days do you remember? Do you remember the fun days that you sat indoors in class learning English, mathematics or geography? Or do you remember the fun days when your lessons went outdoors onto the fields or into the trees or even off-site? Which ones filled you with the most excitement and have stayed as lasting positive memories?

And why shouldn't children learn English, mathematics, geography (or in fact any subject) outdoors where the learning can be so much more exciting?

Woodland Adventurers® believes that education must be fun and exciting to truly maximise the learning opportunities for children (and adults alike). Through having fun and enjoyment our minds are fully open to learning and positive memory retention.

Woodland Adventurers® enables children to be children - to explore, learn and have the most amazing fun that will instill long term positive memories.

Curriculum links

Woodland Adventurers® can link any curriculum topic to the outdoor activities and Forest School activities. If you have a specific topic that you would like covered or linked to extend classroom learning let us know and we will aim to bring the subject even more to life with real world relevance.

Woodland Adventurers® delivers outdoor learning opportunities for the following stages:

Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)
Key Stage 1 (KS1)
Key Stage 2 (KS2)
Key Stage 3 (KS3)
Key Stage 4 (KS4)
Independent Schools
Additional and special educational needs (SEN)
Grown-ups
Independent learning

Additional & extended activities

In addition to more conventional forest school activities Woodland Adventurers® puts significant emphasis on activities for health and well being, including physical activities such as running, team games and hiking as well as cooking, bushcraft and crafts such as pottery in the outdoors. We also often visit our farm animals - pigs, sheep, chickens, ducks, geese and more.

Other activities (coming soon)

No time to stand still. We are in the process of developing further outdoor activities and Forest School activities that will be included shortly.

Note: Activities will be adapted to suit the group and weather conditions.

Who visits our "Forest School PLUS"?

We offer Forest School PLUS learning for the following groups:

Our Forest School PLUS sessions can be held at our location in Box Wiltshire (between Bath and Chippenham). In some cases we can provide the sessions at your premises too - please get in touch to discuss further.

Benefits of Forest School PLUS

Woodland Adventurers® supports local schools, groups and families by providing fantastic and exciting cross-curriculum outdoor learning activities that support the Government's "Learning Outside the Classroom" Manifesto using Forest School principles that:

Build self-esteem and self belief
Improve social skills
Assist in peer relationship building
Assist language and communications skills
Provide cross-curriculum learning opportunities (connecting activities and experiences to learning topics i.e. connecting observations and activities)
Provide the connection between theory and "the real world"
Provide a more natural environment (classroom without walls)
Promote independence
Promote team working
Enable the learning of new skills
Enhance fine motor skills

Our approach

Forest School PLUS and outdoor learning sessions are provided in our woodland, at schools or other locations.

The sessions are developed with each teacher to ensure the correct content for the educational stage and planned outcomes.

All sessions are risk assessed to minimise potential known risks as the participants' safety is of the highest importance.

We aim to provide activities that maintain the attention and interest of all participants.

We also make all reasonable efforts to be inclusive to permit all participants to join in the outdoor activities.

A programme is normally planned that includes a minimum of 6 sessions per group. However longer, ongoing programmes that become integral to the learning environment are more beneficial. Sessions typically last between 2 and 4 hours and include a range of activities such as:

Feeding farm animals
Running and team games
Climbing
Bug hunting
Wild animal observation
Collecting and crafting
Den building
Camp building, lighting and cooking
Whistle making
Whittling sticks
Pottery
Woodland jewellery making
Arts and crafts
Compass reading and exploration
Story telling

This is not a fully inclusive list and all activities can be linked to the National Curriculum.

Note: Often a session plan will evolve to include real life encounters and experiences. And since the sessions include child-initiated / participant-led learning, the plans need to be flexible and it is important that the facilitator or practitioner provides the optimised learning opportunities using a level of judgement for each session.

For example, it is not often that a buzzard will fly and land in the wood within easy eyesight of the group. This would be (and has been!) an excellent opportunity to extend the session plan to encompass more (unplanned) inspirational learning opportunities. Real life experiences (and learning) that stay with the individuals throughout their lives.

Background to Forest School

Friedrich Froebel established the first 'kindergarten' or 'children's garden', play and activity centre for children in Bad Blankenburg, Germany between 1837 and 1840. Froebel's insight was to identify the importance of 'activities' in children's learning. He introduced the concept of 'free play', with activities that included singing, dancing, gardening, exploring and self-initiated play with toys.  Within a century, this 'garden' concept had evolved into something more like traditional schooling with children spending more time indoors.

However, in 1952, Froebel's concept took a new life in Denmark where Ella Flautau applied the core principles to her own children. This gradually spread to local families, across the country and throughout Scandinavia.

In Germany, it took until the 1980s for Froebel's idea to be reincarnated as 'waldkindergarten' or 'children's woodland garden'.

In USA, Richard Louv published the book "Last Child in the Woods" identifying that children are no longer in touch with nature in a 'real' sense. He observes that children watch nature programmes on television and have knowledge of nature through this detached medium but they do not experience the simple aspects of nature through touching, seeing, hearing, smelling, through getting dirty and playing outdoors.

In UK over recent years, unsupervised outdoor play has been replaced by heavily risk assessed activities with tight boundaries and overly close supervision, combined with indoor soft play centres on the weekends.

Since 1995, following a delegation to Denmark from Bridgwater College and a growing interest across many parents, teachers and educationalists, forest schools are now becoming more widespread and they are gradually becoming integrated into traditional education.

Forest School aims to provide child-initiated learning through activities in the outdoors, typically woodland and countryside. These activities are aimed at building self esteem and confidence, being inclusive, building social skills and independence and providing cross-curriculum educational links to the National Curriculum.

Forest School supports the Government's 'Learning outside the classroom' manifesto.

Forest School enables the children's learning styles to be observed and considered for the child's individual, optimum learning potential. Learning styles include visual, auditory and practical. Also, schematic learning can be studied and given freedom for the child to explore in order to optimise each child's ability to learn at different and relevant moments in their early years.

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