Thursday 6 March 2008

Years 1 & 2 children from Snape and 5 & 6 youngsters from Rendlesham primary schools are taking part in a course of outdoor Forest Schools sessions under the guidance of Jenny Kent and her team from Suffolk Wildlife Trust’s Foxburrow Farm education centre.

As part of the project Blaxhall and Tunstall Heaths will be used as outdoor classrooms to teach about the natural world, introduce survival techniques, how to track animals, how to identify certain plants and animals and the best way to make charcoal. The seven week programme will involve 40 children from both schools.

Forest Schools is a unique child centred way of teaching developed in Scandinavia in the 1950s in which adults support and facilitate rather than direct learning. It uses the woodland setting as a class room and enables early years learning through exploration and by experiencing the outdoor environment.

The education team at Suffolk Wildlife Trust were so impressed by the method that they have trained as Forest School leaders and are now running Forest Schools sessions all over the county.

“The Forest Schools sessions we have on offer are child led and child centred; it’s suitable for nursery school children up to teenagers and we try to adapt to each child’s needs, knowledge and stage of development. Experiences on offer become more challenging as the confidence of the individual grows. Lesson plans are flexible and sometimes disregarded particularly as the children take responsibility for their own learning and become more involved. Basically, it facilitates learning through exploring and experiencing the outdoor environment through small manageable tasks,” says SWT education officer Jenny Kent.

Forest Schools allows foundation stage learning and the national curriculum to be delivered in a fun, non-threatening way where no child fails. Research has shown a powerful effect on childrens confidence, self esteem and independence as well as an increase in social and physical skills.

For more information please contact SWT’s education officer at Foxburrow Farm on 01394 380113

ENDS