By now you will probably know that, if all things stay equal, we are going to run a summer holiday club for six of the seven week holiday period. This is based on North Yorkshire holidays but I feel sure that all school holiday dates are a bit out of the window at the moment given that some children have not gone back to school yet. I did hear on the news that there may be plans to alter the school holidays. I think we will cross that bridge when we come to it!
I thought this week's blog may be a good opportunity to focus on how we plan to make the summer clubs safe. I feel sure that there are lots of parents and carers out there who are asking themselves the same question and hope I can put your minds at rest by sharing the process that Siobhan and I have gone through to mitigate risk wherever possible. At Forest School, our main priority is to keep children safe and while we talk about risk being a good thing we mean risk in play... just to be clear 🙂 Having said this we, like you, have been really keen to get children back outside as soon as possible and embrace the new world of living side by side with coronavirus. Our Forest School children are great problem solvers and we teach children to find solutions and not to give up at the first sign of a challenge so we have applied the same advice to the corona problem which put simply is 'how can we play out again without catching the virus or taking it home to our families?' Plan - 'keep it simple'
As you know playing out brings huge benefits for children. I am sure for many of you being outside has been a staple part of your home school day which is great but children will have missed playing with other children and the excitement of free play with others in a woodland. Parents are probably well versed in strategies that school's have adopted to reduce the spread of coronavirus so some of this will be familiar. We have used the guidance given to schools as a starting point.
Hubs of 20 children will be made by you choosing the week(s) you would like your child to come (step 1). I will then contact you when the hub you would like is full and you will be able to book the days that you would like, subject to a minimum of 3 days (step 2). Children will stay in these hubs for a full week so while not all 20 children will be coming for all 5 days the children that do come will be from the same pool. We will have two days break and then re-form as a new hub of 20 children.
Hand Washing - there will be hand washing available, pretty much as there always is at Forest school. Hand gel outside the toilet and soap, water and a towel. I am looking into how I can make a Tippy Tap with the children https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4d1nLpqx0M . This seems a good option for the children to have clean water each time they wash their hands, it saves water and children can learn about sustainability at the same time. Win Win! Children will be able to wash their hands before eating and after the toilet and any other time they want to. We may have a queue around the corner to use the Tippy Tap! Back in February, I was aware that children's hands were getting really sore from constant hand washing. In order to reduce this we will bring a gentle soap, soft towel and only wash hands as above.
Tools and Fire - we will still have tool and fire activities and children will be able to use the equipment as before but it will be wiped down in between children.
Social distancing - as we all know this is an impossible task where children are concerned. Even as adults I'm sure we have all forgotten at one time or another. The good news is; because we have created hubs we won't need to social distance so the children can play freely within the same social group. Having said this we will be talking to the children about trying to avoid 'super' close contact play.
That's it really apart from the hours of updating 'red tape stuff' which I know is important but I do find it's a job I put off. It has however been a big contributor to how we will keep children safe. It's been a really meaningful process to edit the 64 page Grass Roots Muddy Boots Forest School Handbook (downloadable on the website) questioning all the processes that we do at Forest School and why we do them. Do they work? Will they still work in the age of corona? This, the terms and conditions, disclaimer and risk assessment documents all support the four simple points made above. I think you have to keep it simple with children, like the hand washing. This will be fun and when things are fun children learn so they won't be thinking about how boring washing your hands is, they will be too engaged in the mechanics of the Tippy Tap!
The biggest piece of good news for us 'outdoor types' about staying safe is the growing evidence to suggest that transmission outside is very low, it may even be non-existent. Maybe the world is already conducting it's own live experiment to test this theory with the recent protests going on in different countries which have brought masses of people together in close proximity without social distancing. Will this increase the rate of transmission and therefore the number of cases? We may well find out in the next couple of weeks. I thought that this may well be a good topic for next week's blog so I will try and do some research this week on the evidence that I can find. Please let me know if you have any questions about Forest School or other topics that you would like to read a blog on, your suggestions will be very welcome.
For now, thank you for taking the time to read this week's blog, make sure you book the week(s) that you would like for Summer Club and I will see you next week Sally xx
