Our Forest School Curriculum

"The best classroom and the richest classroom is roofed only by the sky"- Margaret Mc Millan

Forest School aims to promote the holistic growth of our children at Coberley, through hands-on learning experiences in our natural countryside location, including in our school nature area and surroundings. Forest School offers our learners the opportunity to take supported risks appropriate to the environment and to themselves, in a safe, non-judgemental nurturing way. The process helps and facilitates more than knowledge-gathering, it helps learners develop socially, emotionally, spiritually, physically and intellectually. 

Forest School has an ethos shared by trained practitioners in the UK and beyond, who are constantly developing their learning styles and skills to support new and imaginative learners. Forest School originates as a way of life seen in Scandinavia, and use the open-air culture to foster resilient, confident, independent and creative learners. Our children all spend an afternoon in Forest School on a three-weekly cycle with our outdoor learning specialist, Mrs Cookson. Our comprehensive curriculum plan takes into account our local area and outdoors space.

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How does Forest School support the National Curriculum at Coberley?

Our Forest school sessions are available to all age groups, and are child-led with the forest school ethos, principles and 6 areas of child development being implemented in every session. There are lots of opportunities for children to use their own imagination and make their own choices, where they bring their learning from the classroom to Forest School. All Forest School sessions provide opportunity to support the National Curriculum which can be witnessed through:

  • Literacy. Children will use a vast amount of new vocabulary, including higher order vocabulary during classroom learning and discussion with peers. Many sessions start with a narrative as a hook for the session, and provide opportunity for new vocabulary to be used. All sessions use an abundance of speaking and listening throughout with key literacy skills which then permeates to all area of learning. All children will have opportunity to share their experience and listen to others during reflection time
  • Science. All classes thoroughly enjoy exploring our outdoor space and gain valuable experience of the 4 season’s first hand. Our outside space abounds with natural child led experiences, and children can learn about biology ecology and much more. They gain knowledge about trees, plants, animals by developing personal understanding of life cycles, food webs, weather and water systems and so much more
  • Maths. Forest School sessions can often include maths without the children realising, including units of measurement (capacity, length, distance, mass), geometry, pattern making, counting and number knowledge
  • Geography. Children are given opportunity to look at our natural world, thinking about the changes which happen throughout the year. Human and physical features are discussed, including water power, bridges and understanding of the power of the sun
  • Art and DT. Forest School provides all children the opportunity to create their own art, whether this be directly in the outside space, or by collecting materials to bring back to the classroom to use, along with other materials including paper, pens, glue and scissors. After a Forest School session, our outdoor area is often scattered with beautiful designs by the children and can stay in place for several days for all to see
  • PSHE and PE. Children can nurture a deeper bond with nature and consider how much joy and calm it brings us whilst being outside. We also discuss how we should respect and look after our outdoor space, which links to our love of our planet. Children are able to develop physical fitness during Forest School sessions, including gross and fine motor skills, along with developing sensory skills when handling a variety of materials. The infrastructure of our outdoor space considers the needs of all children in our school and is a space to provide experience for multiple senses. We always like to seek feedback from the children and make improvements to our outdoor space which are child focussed.