St Anselm'sNature is very forward-thinking; it's forever moving ahead, regardless of what humans are doing. It doesn't care about the minutiae of our lives or even pandemics. It just keeps resiliently; blithely pushing ahead, despite humanity's best efforts to destroy it. I find that both calming and admirable. Nature is a tough old nut. Iconic by Zandra Rhodes
We've all got light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That's who we really are. Sirus Black from Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix. J.K. Rowling.
Adventure is about enthusiasm, ambition, open-mindedness and curiosity. If this is true, then 'adventure' is not only crossing deserts and climbing mountains; adventure can be found everywhere, every day, and it is up to us to seek it out. Alastair Humphreys.
It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement; the greatest source of visual beauty; the greatest source of intellectual interest. It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living. David Attenborough.
The sun shines not on us but in us. The rivers flow not past us, but through us. John Muir.
Children need the freedom and time to play. Play is not a luxury. Play is a necessity. Kay Redfield Jamison.
Play is the highest form of research. Albert Einstein.
The more risks you allow children to take, the better they learn to take care of themselves. Roald Dahl.
St Anselm's Forest School
Provision:
- Selected students participate for a 12 week blocks in classes of 8.
- Fortnightly 'Inspire' lessons for 25 students who picked to do Woodland maintenance & 'Play in nature'.
- Term 5 & 6 after school club.
Footage
Sessions will provide an opportunity to leave the 4 walls of a classroom to learn about the environment, nature, sustainability and biodiversity. They will be in a practical and hands on learning environment where they will learn new skills such as implementing safe processes for making fires, using traditional hand tools (drills, draw knives, axes, sheath knives etc…), building craft items, improving the FS site and time to play in nature.
The benefits of Forest school are well documented with a positive impact on students’ confidence, social skills, motivation, attendance and behaviour. What is unique at FS is that sessions are student-led where they choose what activities, skills and projects they wish to start and develop, giving them autonomy to enjoy the sessions even more.
Parent Feedback
"XXXX loves doing the forest school, she doesn't think of it as school she see it as fun she loves learning stuff about the outdoors."
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My son XXXX in yr9, he is severely dyslexic and has an EHCP. He struggles with academic work and last year was lucky enough to be involved with your forest school weekly. He really loved it…made a new group of friends. XXXX is quite shy, and is a really good sports person, practical and loves football.
Fast forward a year, he started mixing with a different group of boys…being lead down a wrong path/ making wrong choices etc.
We had a month of detentions/after schools and a Saturday. ( I lost count). On report for weeks and weeks.
The school stepped in and offered XXXX another chance at ‘forest school’. It was also suggested that XXXX did afternoon sports clubs.
(To keep him separated from these so called new friends).
The school was literally there for our boy the moment he was taking a wrong turn. I can’t thank you and your team, and the ‘forest school’ enough. Your staff certainly know their children’s characters. XXXX really is a wonderful gentle character. He has benefited enormously from your ‘forest school’ and is actually quite good at it.
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"After the first week he looked forward to going, he really enjoyed the cooking activities. She liked the fact that it didn’t feel like she was at school being told what to do, it was more working together. It was a definite success."
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She loves all the activities you do and its enabled her to get to know some of the older young people which has built her confidence.
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"XXXX loved it! Usual getting him out of bed in the morning is a chore, but when he was going to forest school never had to get him up. He got him self up and ready to go. It got him off his PS5 and motivated to do something. He would come each week telling me what he had learnt and excited to tell me also. XXXX would really benefit from something like this more regularly...it’s a thumbs up from us. 👍 "
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"He suggested using the tool to hunt and cook birds in future sessions, we discussed how this would only be appropriate in extreme survival situations, but I think he just really enjoyed the wild/outdoorsy feel.
The sessions had a real positive impact on XXXX, and on the way he feels about school, it was relaxed and "chilled" and was nice for him to see and experience school as somewhere that can also be fun.
We felt that XXXX was very safe there with you all and it was nice to have you there because he knows you and you know him, it wasn't just run by people who are new to the children.
Overall a very beneficial experience, thank you!"
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"She really enjoys this way of learning as she is very practical and responds to this active approach far better than classroom learning and she’s not afraid to get her hands dirty!
She said, she really enjoyed the experience of doing something she doesn’t normally get to do- and there was nothing you could have done better!"
Children's feedback:
What I liked was:
"I like Axe head splitting because its very fun splitting and seeing how good the split was. I also liked building the round has or help build it."
"toasting marshmallows because it was something we did together and I was able to light the fire very quickly."
"I really enjoyed helping to make the roundhouse as a team. I liked digging the deep holes and concreting the poles in the ground."
"shelter building because we actually did quite well and probably if I keep on going to forest school we would have finish it."
"planting the trees"
"I really like learning how to use different tools and how to use them so you don’t get hurt and their names because I think that can be really useful."
"making the Zip wire because it was fun and everyone can use it plus I like doing them sort of things"
"digging the stairs because it was fun getting muddy."
