Forest Schools

Following a request for information on Forest Schools, today's post will deal with this topic.

If you're completely new to Forest Schools - who they are and what they do - then the Forest Education Initiative should serve as a useful introduction. For local information, Forest Schools Birmingham is also worth a look, while the Learning Outside the Classroom website takes a broader view of education in non-traditional settings.

The Education 3-13 journal (which students can access via Athens in the InformaWorld website) has printed a number of articles on forest schools in the last couple of years. For freely available research, take a look at A Marvellous Opportunity for Children to Learn which was published by the Forestry Commission in 2006 (a summary version is also available). Further briefings with useful information and suggestions for further reading are titled The Benefits of a Forest School Experience for Children in their Early Years, and Can Forest School Act as a Spur to Better Quality Outdoor Experiences?; the latter of these is by Sara Knight, who has just published a book on this topic which will shortly be available from the College Library.

Finally, Teachers TV have produced a 15 minute programme entitled Outdoor Learning with Forest School, which you can view by clicking here.