This page will help keep you informed about the progress being made in this exciting new venture at the school.
Initially, four Taverham Hall staff members are being trained at The Foundry in Lawshall, Suffolk, the premises of the Green Light Trust, to deliver Forest School activities to the children here in our school.
Our Forest School news is presented here with the most recent updates appearing at the top of the page. We hope you will find it interesting to be able to scroll back to the very beginnings of our Forest Schools initiative.
Year 4 have been putting some of our theory into practice in the past week.
We now have a fire place in our log circle.
Toasting marshmallows keeps us all warm in December!
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November
In order to complete her training Juliet Pennell needed to undertake two Forest School sessions; with this in mind and with snow still on the ground in places year 5 enjoyed a two hour session in Snake Wood. (‘There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.’)
The first activity was sit still on their own in the wood and to listen and observe.
When the group reconvened at the log circle they share their experiences. The children are encouraged to develop their language skills and vocabulary by describing what they have seen and heard.
Using natural materials (coppiced willow and naturally dyed wool) the children made dream catchers (fine and gross motor skills, hand-eye co-ordination and helping one another)…
and Stars....
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"Neale and I have just completed the third weekend of our Forest School training and everything is beginning to fall into place.
Saturday was a completely practical experience of building shelters, lighting fires and cooking food. The idea of allowing our children to become involved in some of these activities is exciting - certainly it is giving both of us renewed enthusiasm for our teaching careers.
Anyone interested in our young children of today should read 'Toxic Childhood' by Sue Palmer (where has it all gone wrong?) The Forest School ethos goes hand in hand with the approach that our young students need to experience nature, spend quality time outdoors and breathe the fresh air.
Our Nursery children have the privilege of this most days and it is the aim of Taverham Hall to provide exciting activities that enhance each pupil's ability to allow them to be creative, become independent learners and attain high self-esteem and confidence.
One of our tasks this month is to produce a school booklet explaining the ethos and nature of Forest School - this will be available for parents to view in due course. The most important aspect - we had great fun this weekend with other trainees who are becoming good friends, and we want all children to feel the same."
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The weekend was dedicated to a 16-hour intensive course in outdoor First Aid at the Green Light Trust in Suffolk:
"Our instructors were Andy, an experienced “Outward Bound” instructor, and Mark, an ambulance paramedic. The 23 learners repeatedly practiced a drill centred upon the prioritisation of treatment; over and over and over, until we really knew it. In role-play sessions in a woodland setting we supported necks and bandaged wounds, only for our instructors to shout “Your casualty has now stopped breathing!”
How much easier it was on the floor of the Pre-prep Hall! In all honesty, all previous first aid courses have left me feeling less than confident about my ability in a crisis; after this one failure to act properly is unthinkable."
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Our two intrepid teachers set off for Suffolk early on the Sunday morning, their car laden with outdoor clothing and suitable tools to cover all eventualities. These are extracts from their diaries:
“We lopped the carefully selected willow branches to be transformed into dream catchers and willow stars, made elder bead jewellery and built fires beside our shelter (constructed entirely from natural materials).
Telling and being told stories sitting on logs round the fire in the dappled light of ancient woodland transported us back to our childhood.
These activities amongst others helped us to gain a better understanding of the ethos of Forest School, (or as a more literal translation from the Scandinavian would put it, Nature Nursery) in preparation for Forest School activities at Taverham.”
Sandra and Juliet will be undertaking Forest School activities with the children in the second half of term in order to complete their Level 1 course.
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"Penny and I enjoyed this course far more than we had expected to, and returned from it imbued with a real sense of purpose.
We quickly learned that Forest School is in fact an ethos; an ethos that represents a radically different means of presenting learning opportunities to children. One of the key themes of the weekend was to explore this with the trainees (people like us). This was illustrated by the tutor repeatedly asking us “How do you feel about what you have done?” and “How did what Caroline (for instance) said (or did) make you feel?" throughout our sessions.
A very brief summary might say that Forest School is an established and proven system of using the outdoors and the woodland to encourage investigative learning, empowering children to make decisions about their own preferred learning style. A key aspect is to make children feel positive about themselves and their abilities, whatever their individual strengths may be, and at whatever level.
Such things as safety procedures and modes of conduct are clearly laid out; Forest School is a safe place to be, but much of the day-to-day activities are done through consensus and negotiation.
It was a very interesting and stimulating course - but it would have been good if Monday morning could have been postponed for a day or two to give us both a chance to recover after this very busy weekend!"
Neale & Penny Banks
