Forest School Club
Hello and welcome to the Forest School Club.
We are very fortunate to have access to the outdoor learning and Forest School space at Upton Primary School. The club is open to anyone who attends the school from Reception onwards.
Every session is different and the activities available are inspired by and often created by the children themselves.
What do children do at our club?
We recognise that play is fundamental to children’s learning, not separate from it. A big part of our ethos is knowing when to step back and just let children play!
Craft activities are always available during the session. These include natural crafts using materials found outdoors as well as more traditional resources such as pens, paper and paint. Children are free to follow their own ideas, pursue their inspiration and use the materials in ways that are meaningful to them.
We also offer group games that encourage children to use their senses, notice the natural environment and recognise different plants and wildlife.
What the children really enjoy, though, is the freedom to make the sessions their own and lead their own play and learning.
Children often gravitate towards building camps and dens using logs, tarpaulins, fabrics, leaves and anything else they can find. These spaces frequently develop into elaborate role-play, from shops selling handmade items for leaves, acorns and pine cones to ongoing stories that evolve over several sessions.
We also grow and care for plants and vegetables, including pumpkins ready for an autumn harvest.
We climb trees, balance on logs, hunt for bugs, watch birds, play hide and seek, hide and look for buried treasure, make mud pies and create mandalas and murals using natural materials.
Children have even woven palm leaves around branches and logs to create their own tables and chairs.
Throughout all of this, children are trusted and supported to lead their own journey. They have opportunities to develop confidence, critical thinking skills and a deeper connection with nature while spending time outdoors with friends in a safe and supportive environment.
Registration Information
If your child attends Upton Primary School and would like to join our Forest School Club, please get in touch to secure a place. We’re happy to answer any questions you may have. Click the link to contact me directly.
Pricing Details
- Session Booking: Sessions are booked and charged on a termly basis.
- Cost per Session: £8.
- Discounts:
- Returning children may receive a special discount.
- Sibling discounts may be available.
Benefits of Forest School
Creativity and imagination
Children have the time, space and freedom to follow their own ideas. The woodland environment presents so many opportunities for imagination. We have a gap in a hedge that often becomes a shop and a willow tree that is often turned into a pirate camp where children make their own hammocks.
The abundance of natural materials also gives our children endless possibilities. We have seen sticks become horses or Minecraft pickaxes and logs become giant lily pads that save them from lava.
These ideas can also grow and develop over time. Our group once went from building a camp using logs, twine and fabric to becoming two separate tribes. The children decided that each tribe needed its own colours, chalk face paint and feathers in their hair. They returned to this role-play over several weeks, developing different characters and an increasingly intricate storyline as the game evolved.
Confidence and critical thinking
Children can find confidence in being trusted to lead their own learning journey.
They develop critical thinking skills when they encounter challenges in their play, whether these are social challenges arising from disputes with their friends or challenges that arise in a creative project, such as making and tying hammocks to trees.
They may also need to think carefully about which knots to use when making and tying hammocks to trees, drawing on the different knots we have taught them and deciding which is most suitable for what they are trying to do.
This is supported when we ask them to talk through their ideas when there is a challenge and think of ways it can be solved safely without giving up.
For example, when climbing a tree:
Before you climb up, think about how you want to climb down, what branches you will use and why.
Are these safe branches?
How do you know?
How can we test them safely?
This gives the children confidence that they can be trusted to take measured risks in a mature way.
Friendships and communication
Children can develop their friendships and communication skills through the various activities they take part in.
Children in our club often create in-depth role-play scenarios, from creating and running a shop buried in a hedge to entering a Minecraft world and slaying the Ender Dragon, in between creating a cocoa bean farm!
The freedom the outdoors brings, along with the many natural materials that can be used as props within their play, gives children the space to create their own worlds and invite others into them. The communication and organisation needed to maintain characters and explain what is happening in the world develop their social skills and can widen their friendships. They also need to listen to one another, share ideas and negotiate how the play develops.
Connecting with nature
Returning regularly to the same outdoor space gives children the chance to notice things that can often be taken for granted.
Through their play outdoors, our children experience the seasons changing in a tangible and physical way.
In our club, we have seen an imaginary shop change what it sells as different natural materials appear throughout the year. Depending on the season, the shop might be stocked with daisies and dandelions, acorns, conkers and pine cones, crunchy leaves or even pieces of ice.
Wet weather brings muddy puddles and naturally forming mudslides; snow gives the children the chance to build snowmen; and when the daisies are in full bloom, daisy chains and bracelets often become part of their play.
These experiences give children the chance to notice, respond to and become familiar with the changes happening in the natural world around them and, increasingly importantly, to balance screen time with fresh air and time spent outdoors.
Still wondering what Forest School is?
If this sounds like the sort of environment your children would enjoy and you would like to get in touch, leave us a message and we will get back to you as soon as possible.