My Forest School Story

I worked as an Early Years lead in a small primary school. I loved the ethos of the Early Years Curriculum because it considered the whole child, not just the academic parts of “do they know their numbers to 10”.

The curriculum assessed things like; was a child able to make healthy relationships? Did they had a sense of humour? Could they cope with change and how the world around them worked…. Great!!! All the good stuff in my opinion, the stuff that helps you along in life.

Best of all it is play based, children learning through play. And there it was …. The thing that I really believed in ..

I saw children flourish when they played, their learning accelerated because they were exploring for themselves the things they were interested in.

Unfortunately, the Government was putting more pressure on us, as teachers, to find out stuff like: do they know their numbers to 10?

It took me away from play (where the real learning was) to dragging children away from their play to structured teaching. Assessing if they were at “expected” levels (I take issue with this phrase but that is for another time, maybe a blog?)

In reality we were only assessing a tiny percentage of the curriculum and the truth is that is all the Government were / are interested in.

None of the aspects like: being a nice person, interested in the planet, can solve conflict, to mention a few. This and the massive amount of paperwork that was involved left me disillusioned.

Forest School aligned with my belief in the power of play and viewing a child holistically.

I undertook the Forest School leader course and set up my own business. I called it ‘Grass Roots Muddy Boots,’ a name we came up with over a family meal - credit goes to Charlotte as I remember. This was 2016, I didn’t have anything further than a short term plan because I had to be responsive when things didn’t work out, which was fairly frequently.

I had some howlers, like when a Rottweiler bounded through our camp knocking kids flying. I turned up every session sometimes for 1 or 2 kids and had no idea what cashflow was, if I am honest it’s still a grey area!

But over time I learnt, as we all do, and things became easier. I engaged with more schools and ran a holiday club.

I then started to recruit helpers and another Forest school leader (Hayley - she has to be the nicest person on the planet, she is lovely).

We have some great adult helpers and we make a strong team because we all believe in the power of play.

Currently, the schools we are partnered with are in Pontefract and I have moved from Wakefield to Pateley Bridge in North Yorkshire.

Hayley and the helpers run the school sessions, I no longer do a holiday club but I do run an Under 5s Forest School through the holidays. This is based at Yolk Farm in North Yorkshire.

In terms of the future, I am hoping to engage with more schools in the Pontefract and Wakefield area and start adult sessions in North Yorkshire because the power of play isn’t just for kids.

I am happy doing work I believe in and I love being outside.

Thanks for reading,

Sally x