An article by Joel Glyn-Davies
Muddy hands. Huge Smiles. Calm, mindful moments. All of these have come to mark my Forest School sessions.
As a Forest School teacher in the inner city, you can imagine I have my challenges – not least of all, I have no forest! Instead, we have scraped back and reclaimed a portion of the school field that now contains a pond, some willow bushes/dome structures, a meadow and a few burgeoning saplings of birch, apple and cherry. This space, a haven amongst the concrete jungle isn’t much but it’s ours! The play and exploration area of many enlightened, joyful moments for the children at my school.
There are reams of scholarly research into the area of outdoor play and Forest Schools. Let me rather spell out my notions of the benefits of these sessions.
Play Literacy
Playtime for children in the inner city very often means something indoors. Phones, iPads, and television dominate. It is therefore my privilege to be able to offer space, as well as natural and manmade loose materials to our children to encourage play. Early sessions with my groups are marked by a hesitancy to commit to play activities and unsureness about how to work as a team. I use group games to cut through this with classics like ‘hide and seek’, ‘dragon steal’ (run around a ring and steal an object from a blindfolded child) and other games that already introduce intentional elements of risk and decision-making. ‘King, King Choose us a champion’ and ‘Tail Grab’ are two that do this very well.
Physical contact
Children have to decide what is appropriate physical contact with children of other ages and abide by their ability to control their bodies when doing so. If they don’t, they live with the consequence and have to sort out the resulting fallout themselves. Children learn that the best players are those that push the rules, the use of the area and new dimensions but are still able to respect the natural world around them and each other. Good groups, come up with additions to the rules that improve games, iterations that morph them into something else – very often something more fun. This can often be linked to other means of play which I facilitate to be less structured. By giving them a character, (the woodland elf) who leaves secret notes around, I set up problem-solving tasks and missions to complete. This gives the children a story and context, yet it can be completely wide open to how they interpret it. These tasks develop teamwork, communication, confidence, cognitive skills and very often, real-world applications of science.
Exercise
The outdoors is a natural exercise stimulant. By giving children the freedom to play within a large area, they engage in rough and tumble play and organically establish games that are locomotor involving them moving their bodies in a variety of ways. Very often, the children choose a game that combines these different styles of play and are suitably worn out by the end of it! Higher energy games and play styles make up the bulk of sessions from late autumn till mid-spring when the cold dictates to us a need to move our bodies and stay active.
Forest School is a unique multi-curricular event! There can be learning in maths, science, literacy, P.E., food tech, design tech and PSHE all in one session. These occur spontaneously and in child-led circumstances. Much of these involve embodied enaction – learning through doing – sawing, tying knots, preparing food, lifting and carrying, collecting. All of these happen over a large outdoor area and require the need for children to exercise their bodies and gain new proficiencies.
Grounding
A friend of mine often talks about the grounding aspect of Forest School. They use this term to emphasise the aspect of well-being and mindfulness that nature brings but also it is a purely biological reality. Children are on the ground in nature. They are experiencing life and making choices about their play and learning. This choice-making where there is an element of risk is essential for brain development. Being grounded within their bodies, and making decisions about how they control themselves and how they manipulate their surrounding world that promotes positive growth in the decision-making areas of the brain and provides a platform for them to become more developed adults who can assess risk and make better choices. Not only is it exercise for their bodies but for their minds also.
KNOW your children and help them know themselves
The final benefit I want to mention from my experience at Forest Schools is something everyone recognises but can be difficult to label. It is a different sense of ‘known-ness’. My knowing of the children there and their developing knowledge of self in the outdoor context is something distinct. As educational practitioners, we’ve all had that experience of going on a trip or residential with our children and coming back claiming, “I’ve never seen that side of Ahmed before…” At Forest School, I get to experience it every week. The quiet, withdrawn child who barely speaks is now zooming around chatting about how they are a forest ninja. A child with ADHD is patiently settled into a carving task, showing utter concentration and focus. Even in myself, the journey of Forest School training showed me knowledge of things that I never thought I could do or be! It ignited areas of development I never thought attainable- natural fire lighting, a much greater knowledge of trees, plants and fungi, the ability to carve utensils and cutlery with a knife and build a multitude of natural shelters with only a bit of string (I now own and use a hammock, sometimes in sub-zero temperatures!).
I see this journey of self-development in me and the children, being outdoors and being made new. Catching a glimpse of a different version of themselves. This is because the outdoors teaches us so many lessons without us even realising it. It is the original environment for human learning and I will continue to plumb the depths of its wisdom – and toast a few marshmallows along the way!
If you’re in Derbyshire and you want to come and observe our little inner-city Forest School, drop me a message and I’m sure we can make it work.
Joel Glyn-Davies is primary teacher and Forest School leader based in inner city Derby. He is passionate about providing sessions that combine outdoor skills, primitive perspectives on the natural world and play for children in urban contexts. Alongside teaching in the outdoors, Joel loves hammock camping, playing music with his band and his golden retriever, Louis.