Intent

At Pickhurst, we are lucky to offer a Forest School programme where students learn practical and social skills and are taught to understand issues related to health and safety. The sessions provide the children with an opportunity to practice managing risk in a controlled environment, promoting independence, fostering curiosity, encouraging information-based decision making and a child-led approach.

Implementation

Forest School lessons are timetabled for every class in year group half term blocks. This enables each class to experience Forest School across the year so that pupils learn, appreciate seasonal change and high-quality outdoor learning throughout the year.

Forest School sessions are led by our dedicated Forest School leaders – Jack and John from Sportacus, as well as with the class teacher. The sessions are tailored to provide cross curricular support for the foundation subjects in the termly curriculum learning, wherever possible, and may include activities such as den building, identifying trees, birds, flora and fauna. Approaching classroom-based learning in the context of an outdoor environment, and offering more physical, hands-on engagement, helps to strengthen and embed the children’s knowledge and understanding.

Impact

Through Forest School, the children will not only be more confident and resilient learners, but they will also become more caring and supportive peers due to the heavy focus the curriculum places on understanding and generating empathy. This will enable children to become more able to regulate their social, mental, emotional and spiritual health which means the children are able to perform better in collaborative learning and tasks, arming them with the skills necessary to improve themselves in their schooling career and life in the wider world.