Welcome to Forest School.

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.

Welcome to Forest School 2021-2022

We're looking forward to a new academic year and a new set of adventures and challenges.

Please make sure that your children have a spare change of shoes in case of muddy conditions and suitable clothes for the season and messy exploration.

4K Forest sessions.

We've been working on our shelters using a combination of tarpaulins, rope and natural materials. Several of us enjoyed drinking our hot chocolate inside them and did wonder how comfortable they would be to sleep in!

We've also been experimenting with clay, making tree guardians and also exploring the texture of it. We looked at how to smooth it and print on it as well as finding the tactile nature of it very satisfying.

Moving on to using tools, we've learnt the rules of how to use them safely and added in some tree climbing for good measure.

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!

Mrs Leadley.

Autumn term 2020

Forest School wishes you a very Merry Christmas.

Wishing you all a happy and safe Christmas. We've had special hot chocolate and made a huge star!

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.

​​​​​​​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.

Met Office activities.

Fancy a go at cloud spotting? This will give you some good ideas.

Follow the link for some more activities.

Activities from The Woodland Trust.

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.

Woody facts and activities from Forestry England.

Follow the link to find out more about how trees are used.

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.

Take care,

Mrs Leadley

Can you take part in 30 days wild?

Look at the 30 days wild activity pack and see how many activities you can tick off.

Send me an email to tell me how you're getting on.

Stay wild!

Mrs Leadley

Activities from Wild Days and Earthwatch Europe.

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.

Stay wild!

Mrs Leadley

National Geographic free digital magazine for children.

National Geographic free digital magazine for children.

You can now read past and current issues of this magazine for free on your screen. Let me know what you find interesting!

Take care,

Mrs Leadley

          Have you ever set yourself a challenge?

Have a go at some of these and see what you can achieve before you're 11 and 3/4.

Fancy entering a competition? How good are you at bug hunting?

Click on the link to find out more.

Free membership to Outdoor Learning Made Easy.

Follow the link to to your free membership. You can then access lots of activities to do outside in your green space.

What is Forest School?

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.

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.