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At Great and Small Forest School, Clayton le Moors, our day starts by gathering at our meeting place on Whalley Road before heading off through the farmland to our beautiful private woodland, where our Forest School fun begins.
First we head down to base camp, keeping an eye out for tracks or animals and listening out for our resident woodpeckers or buzzards.
We spend the entire day, 9 am to 3 pm, outside in the fresh air doing lots of exciting things – playing, investigating, splashing, climbing, exploring, reading, swinging, creating, listening, building, sliding, running, counting, developing, finding, jumping, balancing, learning.
(Bonnie Ware)
We have so much fun in our woodland playing and learning more about ourselves, each other and our beautiful natural world and how to help look after it. We observe the woodland throughout the seasons and in all different weathers. The ever-changing weather brings lots of learning opportunities, and we love jumping in muddy puddles, splashing in the stream and sledging in the snow.
We also enjoy lots of yummy campfire cooked foods whilst at Forest School and even forage for the delicious treats that our natural world offers. Our qualified and experienced team encourages and supports the children to plan, manage, and assess risk for themselves through hands on learning experiences such as using tools to make natural crafts and help with fire lighting or woodland management.
Towards the end of the day, we gather to reflect upon our day; what we’ve enjoyed, the things we’ve learned, and what we’d like to do next time. We’ll say thank you and farewell to the woodland and all the wonderful creatures there, then head back through the fields to meet our parents.
There’s so much joy, awe and wonder brought about from time spent in nature at our Forest School, which benefits the holistic development of each and every child, whilst also adhering to the EYFS and helping children get ready for the next stage of their young education. We aim to foster skills in a child such as confidence, self-esteem, resilience, co-operation, communication and respect that they will take with them throughout their lives.
