Forest School & Outdoor Learning
What is Outdoor Learning?
Outdoor Learning is different to Forest School as this is where you use being outside to develop and enhance a lesson focused on the curriculum. Looking for patterns or shapes in a book compared to finding the shapes out in the real world helps build upon our learners understanding and fluency. Trying to describe or write a poem without being out and experiencing what it is you want to say won’t help improve our learners skills.
What is Forest School?
Forest School is more than just being outside and not in class. It is designed to use a regular session outdoors in a woodland and allowing through learner led activities to develop confidence, resilience, independence and creativity. It also allows for learners to feel safe enough to take more choices that could put them that can expose them to risk and feel comfortable with the feeling.
What a Woodlands Forest School session looks like?
At Woodlands School we use our Forest school and outdoor learning area to inspire individuals through education in the outdoors.
We are fortunate to have a great outdoor area where all learners are able to access a range of activities from bug hunting, shelter building, making rustic items to learning how to cook on an open fire.
We support the learners to build on their self-confidence through positive lessons which promotes
- Curiosity
- Creativity
- Self esteem
- Independence
- Speech, language and communication
- A feeling of well being
- Autonomy
- Teambuilding and friendships
- Life skills
Our outdoor education lessons take part in all weathers, which gives pupils a better understanding of the changing seasons and empathy for their natural surroundings.
We believe that the outdoor classroom is one of the richest learning environments. It provides endless opportunities to enhance the learning of all our young people in a challenging and inspiring setting.
Learning
All learners are discovering their natural surroundings, collecting sticks, manipulating sticks, becoming curious about creepy crawlies and taking part in water and mud play activities. Learners have done lots of activities around the seasons and have been discovering ‘What is Autumn’.
