Welcome to our taste of Forest School at Blackwood.
At Blackwood we're proud to offer ' A Taste' of Forest School to our students. This year (within Covid-19 guidelines and restrictions) we aim to offer Monday afternoon sessions to our Year four children. Each set of fifteen children aim to complete five sessions (within available timetabling.)
As one of the main six aims of Forest School is to work within a 'child-led' approach, each session may differ as our groups explore their interests and drive their skills and knowledge further.
Our students are instructed in ways of identifying challenges and hazards through their exploration and are taught safe ways of working as identified in our many risk assessments. A challenge or risk may differ according to the activity and be emotional or physical, from learning within an outdoor environment, coping with the weather, offering ideas to a group or using a saw, drill or cooing on a fire.
Scroll down to see what we've been up to or for ideas to try out at home and other outdoor spaces.
We hope you enjoy what you find.
Stay wild!
Mrs Leadley and the Forest School team.
Reminder:- Our Monday Forest School session will re-start on Monday 4th January for 4JK group A.
The Forest School Survey.
Please take some time to fill in my surveys. Your feedback is important to help us continue to develop and grow!
Wishing you all a happy and safe Christmas. We've had special hot chocolate and made a huge star!
The stick challenge- What can you do with one?
A magic wand.
New broom!
Forest school facemask!
Cheers!
Cheers!
New stock for my forest school shop.
Like my style!
Hot chocolate is like a hug in my tummy.
Dunking biscuits.
The Forest School shop.
Using stick for dens.
The team.
A clean sweep.
Children In Need Friday.
Our Forest Schoolers are keen to develop their cooking skills. They decided that after marshmallows, that they would like to try pancakes. A tasty success.
Our own Forest School Remembrance. Using natural materials to create a poppy.
Forest School adventures 2019-2020.
Weaving.
More weaving.
Using the saw horse.
Planting trees.
Team-building.
Friends.
Planting for the future.
Earth stars
Helping each other.
Den-building.
Just chilling.
Candlesnuff fungi.
Jelly ear fungi.
Wax caps.
More Jelly ear.
Watching the leaves grow.
Nature ID
This is hard work!
Action shot. Tools at the ready!
Making dens in the rain.
We all have different designs.
Tree cookie Christmas baubles.
Drilling conkers.
Friends.
Decorating our Christmas tree.
This is Logo. Like Lego but made of logs.
Using the tippy tap to wash our hands.
Building a children's nest.
Forest school binoculars.
Potions.
Tree guardians using clay.
What have we found?
Chrystal brain fungus. Look but don't touch!
Nature photography by our children.
Teamwork.
Miniature den-building.
Halloween turnips
Carved with peelers.
Scary!
Fly agaric. Look but don't touch.
Jelly ear.
Sticks have two ends. Look behind you!
Using the drill and jig.
Framed artwork.
Nature observation.
Toffee apples on the fire.
Gross motor skills on the slack line.
Can you make it across without wobbling?
Can't wait for mine!
Hi!
Working together.
Hello Mrs Sandland.
Working in any weather.
It's fun!
The wind anemometer. How fast is the wind gusting?
Just tired!
Can you see us?
Here we are!
Using the wire saw.
Just tree hugging!
Chasing tails.
Can you catch me?
Oops!
Look what I made.
Can you tell that I'm having fun???
Conker crown.
I drilled these myself.
Worm charming championships. We found three!
We made this maze. Can you do it?
​​​​​​​Forest School activities that you can try at home.
The Forest School team are really missing our sessions but we're thankful that we can still do lots of things outside in the garden. If you are looking for some activities to do in your own green space then try some of these.
Mrs Leadley and the Forest School Staff.
Friday Forest School Key worker's pod.
We're excited to announce that our Forest School has branched out to owning five hammocks!
The children have learnt how to put them up themselves but can only go in them once Mrs Leadley has tested them!
We start the session with some'Hammock mindfulness' and finish with collective storytelling. Watch this space to find out what else we've been up to.
Our new hammocks.
Finding a shield bug.
Isn't it beautiful?
Storytelling.
We made our own games.
Making ink for our homemade quills.
Trying out our quills.
'Loggie' the Log.
Using a wire saw.
Forest School TV.
Setting up shop.
Making Forest School tokens.
Met Office activities.
Fancy a go at cloud spotting? This will give you some good ideas.
Fancy making a boat to sail in the park or go butterfly spotting? Maybe you want to explore how nature changes as we go into summer? Click on this link for lots of great activities.
The 8th June is the World Oceans Day. There are lots of fun activities, videos and resources to access to teach us all about how we should look after the water on our planet.
Please send me an email with what you have found out or to show me your work.
If your grown ups need some wild time, why don't you show them the next link so that they can enjoy nature and be calm and peaceful when working from home!
I shall be bringing you lots of activities from Wild Days which think about all sorts of natural and Geographical activities. The first theme is 'Islands.' There is an activity for each day of the week. Please send pictures of your work or your ideas to your year group email addresses. I look forward to seeing what you have been up to.
Forest School originated in Denmark as a method of teaching children within a wooded setting. Through exploration, play and child-lead activity your children will undertake learning and exploration opportunities in a non-formal environment, focusing on creative and linguistic expressions of their learning. We are very lucky here at Blackwood as our school is set in the middle of woodland and provides access to several areas within the school site within which, our sessions take place.
As a member of The Forest School Association, we endeavour to follow the main Forest School ideals. Here is a video from Matt Harder (FSA Director) to explain what Forest School is all about.
Forest School is an important part of our curriculum giving Blackwood pupils a unique educational experience using the outdoor environment of the forest as a classroom. Forest School activities are arranged for primarily, Year Four children but can be extended to other year groups. We are lucky enough to have a fantastic eco-garden on our site which provides a contrasting habitat to enhance our studies. Forest School is led by Mrs Leadley, one of our own teachers and a qualified level 3 Forest School Leader. Mrs Leadley is supported by our loyal volunteers, Mr Davies and Mrs Sandland and Miss Taylor.