“Forest School is an inspirational process that offers ALL learners regular opportunities to achieve, develop confidence and self-esteem, through hands on learning experiences in a local woodland or natural environment with trees.”
Forest School is a specialized approach that sits within and compliments the wider context of outdoor and woodland learning.
Forest School Association
It is 25 years since Forest School sessions began in the UK - introduced by a group of educationalists from Bridgwater College in Somerset. They had visited a Danish forest kindergarten or ‘skovbørnehave’ and were so impressed with what they saw that they decided to develop and implement a similar program of their own back in the UK. One of the original visitors, Jane Williams-Siegfredsen, wrote in an article for Teach Early Years, that she was:
“totally bowled over by what (she) saw – children free to roam the wooded area beside their kindergarten. The youngsters were confident and competent in their play, climbing trees and imaginatively making up games using the natural materials around them”
Back in the UK, Williams-Siegfreidsen and her colleagues set about creating a “forest school” at Bridgewater College children’s centre; she notes that the concept soon took off and Forest schools began appearing all over the UK: in Wales since 1999; Scotland since 2003 and across England from the early 2000s. It is worth noting that the term Forest school is a loose translation of the Danish concept which has many different names including ‘skovbørnehaver’ (forest kindergartens), ‘skovegrupper’ (forest or wood groups), ‘naturbørnehaver’ (nature kindergartens).
Forest School Association
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