Forest School

Forest School

We are very lucky at Sunny Brow to have extensive woodland grounds which complement our fabulous building.

This gives us the ideal environment in which to greatly enhance the children’s learning experience through our Forest School.

Forest Schooling originated in Sweden and was readily embraced in Denmark. In 1995 it was brought to the UK, and since then enlightened practitioners have utilised its philosophy to engage children in the world around them, focusing on a natural environment. The approach has particular benefits for social and emotional development as well as language enrichment.

The delivery of the curriculum at Sunny Brow draws on the findings of contemporary research, reflects influential educational theories, and incorporates the strongest elements of the approaches developed in Italy, Belgium, Denmark, New Zealand and the United States.

There is encouragement and support by the staff for the children to explore all of the activities and opportunities. The session always concludes with a ‘tidy-up’ time, both inside and out, which involves the children. The format of each session provides freedom of choice, as well as allowing for more structured teaching and learning.

The school holds a lead role in Rochdale and surrounding authorities in the development of Forest Schools. Children are offered sessions throughout the year: these take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Shhh…

Every Forest School session starts with a stop – at
The Listening Tree. The group are asked to pause and be very quiet.

“What can you hear?”
“Birds…” “the wind…” “an aeroplane!”

This moment teaches the children to be aware of their environment and to appreciate the difference between being in the classroom and being outdoors.

They then walk on to The Stop Tree. Here, the children are reminded of the boundaries of the Forest School as part of their risk assessment awareness.

It’s going to get messy!

Don’t worry, it’s not messy, it’s creative! By its very nature – and thanks to the British weather – Forest School can get a little muddy.

Children love getting messy and we certainly encourage them to get stuck in. Forest School is all about losing inhibitions and exploring, climbing trees, looking for life under logs, building dens, campfires and collecting leaves and flowers.

The children are provided with waterproofs when necessary and of course wellies are a must. But probably best to avoid those pretty little white sandals and designer sneakers on Forest School days! here