What is Inglehurst Forest School?
Inglehurst Forest School takes place in a small wooded area on the school grounds and is made up of a variety of flora and fauna, which requires regular woodland maintenance to ensure the preservation of areas and to encourage continued growth of what, is a beautiful natural area for the school. The focus is to engage and provide children with unique educational experience with opportunities for children to develop and succeed through hands on experience in a natural woodland environment. Forest School is a process, which will be offered to all children for 6 sessions through the year in almost all weathers! They will develop their collaborative working skills, self-esteem and confidence through enjoyable and unique opportunities that can be transferred to not only their learning within the classroom, but provide them with lifelong skills and understanding of the natural world.

At IFS all children are viewed as:

• equal, unique and valuable

• competent to explore and discover

• entitles to experience appropriate risk and challenge

• entitled to choose, to initiate and drive their own learning and development

• entitled to experience regular success

• entitled to develop positive relationships with themselves and other people

• entitled to develop a strong positive relationship with their natural world

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IFS is a long term process of regular sessions rather than a one off visit.
IFS takes place in a woodland or natural environment to support the development of a relationship between the learner and the natural world.
IFS uses a range of learner centred processes to create a community for learning.
IFS aims to develop resilient confident, independent and creative learners.
IFS offers learners the opportunity to take supported risks appropriate to the environment and to themselves.

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What happens at Forest School?
Children will engage in motivating and achievable tasks and activities throughout the year and in almost all weathers with the appropriate footwear and clothing. Children will work with tools, play, learn and begin to understand the boundaries of behaviour, both physical and social. 
 

All sessions are led by our Forest School practitioner. Each session is planned and activities delivered dependent upon group size, capabilities and knowledge. However, overtime children’s confidence, skills and abilities grow and sessions begin to follow the Forest School principles encouraging participant-led learning allowing more responsibility and freedom for children to initiate their own and the groups direction of learning.

IFS will primarily use natural materials to encourage children’s investigation, creativity and imagination.

Activities include:​

• woodworking and use of tools

• shelter building

• fire building

• climbing and balancing

• creating wildlife habitats and homes

• collecting sorting and identifying natural resources

• using knots

• team games and activities

• mindfulness

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The activities will also be used to support curriculum-based learning and can link a number of subjects including ART, History, English, Maths and Science. Therefore, enhancing children’s learning in a unique manner and fitting the activate learning approach used at Inglehurst.

What do children learn at Forest School?

At Inglehurst we realise that many elements shape our learning success: social. physical, intellectual, communication, emotional and spiritual . Through forest school these elements are learnt and understood for all children to reach their true potential. This is where holistic learning truly begins and flourishes.

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