Forest School in East Lothian

Forest School in East Lothian
The National Programme for Equally Well has supported the development of forest school / kindergarten as a Support from the Start initiative. A sustained use of the outdoor has clear benefits for health and well-being and the development of forest school is recommended in the Early Years Framework and is encouraged by Her Majesties inspectorate of education. (For a brief description of forest school see appendix 1)
Training East Lothian staff as forest school leaders.

Since the first pilot forest school in East Lothian (Saltoun Primary 2008) one of the key barriers to developing forest school has been the availability of forest school leaders. These are individuals that have undertaken training specific to the delivery of forest school. A forest school leader does not have to be a teacher, but sustainable delivery of programmes to East Lothian children is dependant on teaching staff training in this approach or having the confidence to employ it with the backing of school management. The alternative is schools relying on support staff to deliver or paying for external contractors to work with the school. Experience from other areas suggests relying on support staff and contractors is not a sustainable way of supporting forest school approaches in mainstream school and nurseries. However, the role of support staff such as integration workers, active school coordinators, countryside rangers etc. can be very important to sustaining a school in using this approach.

The training of sufficient teaching staff to form a pool of experienced practitioners is a priority for developing this approach in East Lothian. The training is currently offered at two levels and is accredited by the Open College Network. Level three training is the training for ‘forest school leaders’ and level two is training that is designed for staff or parents who are supporting a forest school leader in delivering a programme. Level three is significant commitments for staff to under take with considerable independent study time required for successful completion.
In the last year two level three training course have been held in East Lothian¹ delivered by Aline Hill of Big World Training. Each course takes a maximum of 16 places. The first course started in October 09 and participants will have completed by August 10 the second course started in Feb 2010 and will have completed by the end of 2010. Priority for places was given to staff from schools in the Support from the Start target area with any remaining places being offered to staff from elsewhere in East Lothian.
The following school have taken up places on the course :-
Musselburgh Burgh Primary (2)

East Linton Primary (1)

Dunbar    Primary (4)   

Innerwick primary (1)

Prestonpans Infants (2)

Cockenzie Primary (2)

Sandersons Wynd (1)

Stenton primary (1)

North Berwick High (1)

Wallyford primary (1)

Gullane Primary (1)

Whitecraig Primary (1)

Campie Nursery (1)

Saltoun primary (2)

Humbie primary (1)
Two East Lothian countryside rangers are also completing the training and will be offering their services to school in a support role

In addition to this one member of staff from Midlothian and 4 other external candidates are taking the training.

If all the staff complete the training East Lothian will have access to 24 level three trained forest school staff in addition to the 5 who had trained or started training prior to Support from the Start. There is also one independent practitioner within East Lothian who provides her services on a commercial basis.
The 24 staff are now beginning to run forest school programmes in their schools – a minimum six week (assessed) programme is part of the training requirements. A report will be compiled summarising these programmes at the end of this year.
Next steps for training related to the development of forest school in East Lothian.
Given that the second level three course could not be filled without a number of external candidates it is felt that the current demand for this level of training has now been met particularly from the target schools.

Level 2 training

Feedback from the schools is that many teaching staff would like to take part in training that has a less significant time commitment. Hence the next step will be the delivery of at least one - level two training course, as this is shorter overall and has less requirement for self study. Priority for this will be giving to staff working in, or with, the schools that have had staff trained at level three.

Nature Nurture

Nursery staff have not responded to the training opportunity in the numbers hoped for and after some consultation a bespoke training –‘Nature – Nurture’ - course is being developed for nursery staff in East Lothian which will have four taught days and the opportunity to observe a pilot nursery ‘nature nurture group’ using the forest school principles in a nursery setting

Pilot summer forest school activity with integration staff

In the summer break a programme was put together with the integration team to explore the application of forest school as a summer activity for early years children known to the integration team. The sessions were held in Butterdean wood. A DVD has been produced summarising the programme but both integration team staff and the forest school leaders contracted to provide the sessions felt that it had a mixed success. In essence it was felt that more preparation time was needed for the integration staff team and the forest school leaders to become familiar with each other’s ways of working. The forest school leaders felt that the summer school format was not the right one for this group of children, and that more time was needed for them to develop within the environment. Hence it was felt that this format should only be used where the children had already been involved in forest school or where it was planned to continue beyond the summer holiday period.

Equipment and outdoor clothing for forest school

Another barrier to the development of forest school can be quality outdoor clothing and footwear and non-traditional equipment that schools do not normally possess (tools, rope, fire lighting equipment). A small grant has been obtained with the support of Leader + to purchase outdoor clothing and a stock of equipment that can be borrowed by schools. The outdoor clothing has been purchased and issued to schools in the target area (with staff training as forest school leaders). A larger stock available to any school will be held by the outdoor education service. Equipment will be purchased once consultation with forest school leaders is completed.

Access to woodland or other appropriate outdoor space

Forest school does not require a forest, but an accessible safe and engaging outdoor environment is needed. The countryside ranger service in East Lothian has been supporting schools to identify appropriate spaces and all schools using an outdoor environment will inform the ranger service in advance who will assist with an assessment of the potential impact of forest school on the environment and advise on measures to limit this impact. Experience has been that private landowners are happy to allow access to schools if informed about what activities were planned.

Appendix 1

What is forest school / kindergarten?

Forest School is an inclusive and inspirational process that offers children, young people and adults, regular opportunities to achieve, and develop confidence and self-esteem through hands-on learning experiences in a woodland or outdoor setting.

What happens in forest school / kindergarten?

Participants work outdoors with qualified practitioners and teachers over a period of time. Learning and teaching strategies are used to foster independence and develop language and communication skills, and increase levels of physical activity and emotional well-being.

Participants are encouraged to understand, appreciate and care for the natural environment. Provided with opportunities to take risks, make choices and initiate learning, they develop practical skills in a context where they can really achieve, and grow into confident and capable people.
The outdoors offers a dynamic, challenging, stimulating and informal environment for learning. Almost all East Lothian schools and nurseries can access suitable woodland within a short walking distance from the school. Forest school can take place around trees in or beside school or nursery grounds, woodland parks, community woodland beside settlements, or forest in the wider countryside.
What is unique to Forest School, and sets it apart from other outdoor education programmes, is that the programme is long term, and can be designed to support all ages from pre-school to adults. Learners visit an outdoor setting on a regular and frequent basis in small groups with a high ratio of practitioners to learners. Learning is enhanced with the freedom to explore using multiple senses, and is actively linked to the curriculum within practice that is holistic, participative, and sustainable.

July 2010

Steven Wray

1 thanks to Longniddry primary for hosting the courses