Fresh air schools stress practical skills

Fresh air schools stress practical skills

By Jane Elliott

The children of the Ace Centre nursery have noticed a big difference in Monday's classroom.

Forest School means one day a week out of doors

The walls and roof have budded and bloomed green and the floor has become carpeted with wild flowers.

The rest of the week the children may learn in a traditional environment, but on Mondays they take part in a radical educational innovation that sees children taught in the Forest School.

Based on a Danish idea, these schools are a way of incorporating learning in an outdoor setting.

Set up in Oxfordshire three years ago, the Forest Schools, also operating in other counties, have proved a big success with teachers, pupils and parents.

Social interaction

For those children who do not shine in an academic environment, the Forest Schools are particularly effective.

Older children get a chance to be constructive

They give the older children a chance to show their practical rather than academic skills, thriving in a classroom environment tailored to their abilities.

For the younger children there is a chance to work on their language skills, encouraging them to talk to their friends, parents and teachers about the animals and insects they have seen - and about who fell into the mud first.

Kris Tutton, Early Years/Forest School Consultant for Oxfordshire, said the idea was proving very popular.

Already 16 schools have signed up, eight primary and eight secondary.

The secondary school pupils help prepare the land, building or mending fences and making a semi-permanent structure to shelter the younger children.

Core learning

But as well as being fun the Forest Schools, based on local farmers' land, also provide a key-learning tool, with every part of the national curriculum being studied in the forest apart from information technology.

Look what we did Mum!

Kris said: "The key point is that these schools are a core part of the children's education.

"They go each week to the schools and we get time to develop themes within the period of a year.

"It does not detract from the curriculum. The children come out once a week with their teachers.

"The emphasis is on the development of self-esteem and self-development. And it is particularly powerful for those who do not do well in a classroom context.

"Children spend a lot of time sitting at desks - too long in my view - and they need to spend some time on their physical skills."

Own ideas

Richard Mulvaney, Forest Schools leader, said the woodland setting gave the children another way of learning.

The students have ownership of the projects, they make the decisions about how it is best to tackle a job

Forest Schools leader Richard Mulvaney

"Each secondary is paired with a nursery or primary class, and the main focus of practical work become preparing and managing the site for the younger children.

"A typical Forest Schools session will involve a brief discussion about the tasks the students will work on during the morning or afternoon, and a reminder of the health and safety issues involved.

"The students then work on a variety of tasks from thinning conifer trees and fencing, to building boardwalks and shelters.

"All of the time the students have ownership of the projects, they make the decisions about how it is best to tackle a job, and very often one task may lead onto another."

At Chipping Norton, for example, a sloping path became more and more slippery, so one of the students suggested making steps to make it easier for the younger children to negotiate.

"They promptly planned what they were going to do and digging work began."

Forest tales

By September Kris hopes to have a total of 20 schools involved in the scheme.

Claire Jarvis, mother of one pupil, Daniel, is so impressed with it she wants her son to continue to benefit now he has left the Ace Centre nursery for primary school.

Daniel and his mother Claire are fans

"When he realised he would not be going to the Forest School any more he was in floods of tears," she said.

Claire has now written to his head teacher in the hope that the school will enrol in the scheme in the future, so reception class children like Daniel can continue going.

Claire said he and his four-year-old friends would be ready in their wellies each week to get dirty and close to nature.

"He would come home after one of the Forest School sessions and tell me who had fallen into the mud and who had had to be rescued by the teacher.

"But I think his favourite bit of all was the time they made a fire and toasted marshmallows on it. He has been keen to do that ever since and keeps asking if we can make a fire in the garden.

"He had a fantastic time and absolutely adored it, rain or shine. The nursery school had all the waterproofs for them and all we had to supply were the wellies.

"As soon as the kids stepped off the mini-bus they were playing games and enjoying themselves.''