Forest School

It is our intent at St John Fisher to provide all of our pupils with forest school experience by the end of their primary school journey. We have a dedicated forest school area and trained members of staff. Regular forest school sessions build on team work, a deeper understanding of the world around us and encourages and enriches vocabulary. Our forest school sessions take place on Fridays and each year group participates in a blocked series of sessions each half term.

During their forest school sessions children will grow in confidence as a result of the freedom, time and space they are given in their learning. This allows them to demonstrate independence at each individual child’s rate. Children are encouraged to assess and manage their own risk and safety during sessions which will result in them learning key life skills. Forest school helps all children to become more independent and builds resilience. It helps us all to grow, forcing us to try again in a different way when faced with a challenge. Forest schools encourages problem solving, logical thinking and self-reflection and evaluation.

Children will participate in a range of activities during their forest school journey including fire skills, den building, safe tool work. Children will learn about our environment, the impact we all have on it and what we can do to help take care of it.

Forest school is child led and the adults are there to observe, model, support and encourage. It is a fantastic environment that teaches skills that can then be implemented in the classroom to aid learning.

The impact of our forest school curriculum is measured through the images and videos of the children’s practical learning and talking to the children about their learning during reflection. Some of our recent sessions can be seen below.