Forest School

Our Aims:
At Forest of Galtres, we are proud to provide all children, from Nursery to Year 6, the opportunity to investigate and discover the outdoors whilst nurturing meaningful experiences for wellbeing with a life-long impact.

Forest School encourages and develops a wide range of skills, attitudes and competencies. Through regular outdoor learning sessions our aim is to ensure our children develop a genuine love of nature and the outdoors. Our pupils readily talk about the overwhelmingly positive impact Forest School has on their sense of wellbeing with teachers reporting the positive impact these learning sessions can have on pupils’ concentration and motivation in other curriculum areas.

With expert guidance, we have developed our school grounds to promote outdoor learning and staff have had training in green woodworking and campfire skills.

In Early Years:
Forest School sessions enable pupils to engage with nature through a blend of free exploration and guided activities that build knowledge and skills. Through these outdoor sessions children learn important lessons about safety and risk taking, species identification and an introduction to basic shelter building and gardening skills. Children also learn to distinguish between the features of creatures at a young age.

Key Stage One:
As children enter Key Stage One, they will build upon the previously learnt knowledge and skills and will have opportunities to independently create and construct. They also have opportunities to investigate and identify wildlife in the school grounds whilst observing seasonal changes and developing their vocabulary around nature.

Key Stage Two:
At Key Stage Two our children continue to build upon their knowledge and skills whilst learning outdoors. They will develop their skills when building shelters and be able to assess effectiveness of structures, identify a wider range of species and create habitats to support eco systems. Children will begin to experience firepit sessions where they create and attend to a fire safely and take part in fireside cooking activities.