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F O R E S T S C H O O L I N W O R C E S T E R S H I R E L E A
The Benefits of a Forest School Experience for
Children in their Early Years
In recent years, early years settings have been bombarded with new initiatives designed to raise standards. With the emergence of the “Foundation stage”, the most current document sent out to early years settings is the “The Foundation Guidance” (DfEE, 2000). Since the 1960’s there has been a call for better quality in the foundation stage, with a number of major reports such as: Rumbold report (DES, 1990), “Start Right Report” (R.S.A, 1994), and The House of Commons Select Committee (1994) All have influenced the way we perceive early years education today and the positive attention it is now receiving. Alongside this is a growing amount of research that suggests the importance of a high quality early years education. Andersson (1994) highlights the significance and its long-term effects on children’s learning, leading to gains in educational achievement, better social behaviour and a more productive citizenship.
The forest school initiative originated in Scandinavia and has been rapidly developing in England and Wales over the last 4 years. One of the reasons for this enthusiasm is that forest schools have the same basic underlying principles adopted from the Scandinavian model. A qualified forest school leader devises a program of learning that is based on the children’s interests and that allows the children to build on skills from week to week, at their own pace. They provide a safe woodland environment for the children to explore, embedded in routine that is established early within the program.
What makes forest school unique is its emphasis on learning outside of the traditional classroom and having the freedom to explore the ever changing environment, to take risks and “assess risk for themselves” (Lindon 1999, p11). Weaver (1998) suggests “The children learn informally about nature through being out in the woods” (p14). For some, like parents in Denmark (cited by Weaver) being outside seems more natural than the classroom and ‘touches something deep’ within the children. Gooding argues that all aspects of the curriculum can be taught outside, stimulating the imagination and bringing subjects to life in a real context. Indeed in such a way as to stimulate all their senses and building firm foundations for further learning.
It would seem that a fundamental difference between a forest school approach and many traditional outdoor education approaches would be their starting points. Outdoor education often starts with an issue, agenda or problem for the children to investigate. Forest school is led by the child’s interests, within a loose skills framework with supportive intervention by qualified leaders. This view is expressed further by Grenier. (1999) “..we follow what the children point out first, and set challenges” (p12).
The forest school initiative in Worcester shire has been established for 4 years and as part of its continuous evaluation and development this small scale longitudinal research project was devised to discover any possible benefits of a forest school program. The study spans an academic year and follows a small group of eight 3 to 4 year olds who attend an independent day nursery.
The aims of the study were;
Sam Massey Early Years Mentor Teacher 1
Sam Massey Early Years Mentor Teacher
- to ascertain the views of the children, parents and practitioners regarding what they feel about the forest school experience and what they are gaining from their participation;
- to ascertain if forest school provides skills and confidence for a child’s life long learning;
- to provide an insight into the types of learning experiences being offered and if these underpin the early years principles laid out in the Foundation Stage Guidance;
- generate ideas regarding dilemmas and tensions that may arise from the research that will inform the forest school co-ordinator and the LEA for its future development
The methodology
Method Participants Sample size Questionnaires at the beginning and end of the research time.
Parents 8 (6 to completion)
Informal interviews and Anecdotal Log
Staff Parents Forest school leader Children
2 8 (6 to completion) 1 8 (6 to completion) Camcorder recorded observations. Children. 8 (6 to completion) Involvement timed observations. Children 8 (6 to completion) Photographs Taken by children Taken by staff Taken by Forest school co- ordinator
8 (6 to completion) 2 1
The focus of the research was to gather views from those people directly concerned with the Forest school experience. It was therefore necessary to identify a sample from that population. When devising a sample Cohen et al (2000) suggest researchers consider four key factors including the sample size, the representitiveness and parameters of the sample, access to the sample and the strategy to be used. The size of the sample though small was chosen because it was easily accessible, had no previous forest school experience and represented the immediate population effected in the study. It was an important consideration for the study that the children were experiencing visiting forest school for the first time in order to capture some of the elements of a forest school experience through their eyes. It was felt that this sample gave a true representation of views and reflected the qualitative data collected. In such a “ qualitative naturalistic ” (Cohen et al 2000, p23) approach, the views of the participants need to be taken into account. The data for this longitudinal study was collected regularly by the researcher and in collaboration with the forest school leader and nursery staff over nine months in order to represent a true picture of possible benefits. The study took the form of a participatory case study, with the methodology reflecting the ethnographic nature of the research.
It was felt that a questionnaire for parents would be able to ascertain their views regarding the possible benefits for their children as well as an opportunity to establish the previous outdoor experience of the children, ‘testing the waters’ to see if there were any tensions and dilemmas before the study began. The questionnaire was structured with open and closed questions in an attempt to encourage the parents to express themselves on a range of issues.
The interviews were used in conjunction with other research methods and as the study is essentially “ real life research ” (Robson 1996, p2) the interviews were informal during the children’s weekly visits to forest school, often without a script, and intended to put participants at their ease. This study utilized unstructured interviews that allowed more flexible open-ended questions to ‘go further’ by introducing a theme and
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Exploring the Benefits of a Forest school
Experience.
Personal and Social Development All the children were observed has having confidence and independence with the activities in the woodland and in the care of the natural environment, providing them with a sense of success and raised self esteem. The children were seen to develop relationships with others and to form new friendships with peers and adults. This has ensured that towards the end of their program the children had begun to work as a group considering the needs of others, as well as individually. Practitioners reflected that the children while in the woodland had gained in confidence in adapting to new situations and in trying new experiences. This also impacted on their ability to choose activities independently and their confidence in self initiating tasks was seen to develop dramatically.
Child S enjoyed making shelters and would often enlist the aid of one of the other children by saying ‘oh! This one is heavy, can you help me?’ the other children keen to help would all hold on to the large log and help to move it into position. He had acquired more skill in making and keeping friends, the art of consideration and compromise. ‘Can I help you?’ instead of ‘that’s mine’. Though these changes may be maturational their experiences gave them ‘real’ opportunities for practicing these elementary life skills.
“Low self-confidence or self esteem is one of the most critical controlling elements of a child’s ability to learn and behave appropriately and thus to achieve his/her potential” (Margerison,1996 p176).
It would seem that by taking the time to allow children to develop good self esteem and develop a good self image, in a climate of small achievable steps, forest school can contribute to and enrich the quality of the children’s overall educational experiences.
Communication and Language Development By starting with and incorporating children’s interests forest school provides different starting points and appropriate content for individual children. Through interacting with peers regarding special interests the children became motivated to use real language in real contexts, ensuring that language was meaningful.
The children’s questions changed over time becoming more specific. In term one child A would repeat ‘look at this!’ In term two his questions were more specific ‘where do they live? What do they eat? In term 3 he was beginning to transfer information and relate it to new experiences, ‘are they like badgers?’ correctly inferring that foxes hunt at night. Dowling (2000) suggests, “ that in order for children to make true progress in learning they need to make sense of new information by using what they know already and modifying, updating and rethinking their ideas in the light of new knowledge” (p80).
Opportunities were observed were the children spontaneously worked alone, in pairs and as part of a larger group in collaborative projects. These opportunities enabled them to use familiar language regularly, to revisit new concepts and to extend vocabulary beyond the classroom in a real context. This context did not include the traditional teaching of reading and writing though some of the children often used large sticks to make marks in the mud and soil. Rather it provided ‘relevance’ for the children, a reason for language and one that they took back with them to inspire them in their own setting.
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Life long learning Through a balance of supported and self initiated activities the children were encouraged to stretch beyond the usual boundaries set by the classroom and to eventually take risks safely by learning to assess the risks of activities independently. This was seen to aid their decision processes and their problem solving abilities. This freedom without a fixed agenda ensured that the six key thinking and learning skills of; enquiry, hypothesis, information processing, decision making, communication and vocabulary, review and evaluation (Worcestershire LEA, 2002) were experienced regularly.
The children were observed splashing in the mud on a rainy day. Such a seemingly simple and enjoyable experience led to conversations about where the puddle had come from and where it goes. The puddle became a firm favorite with children building on their knowledge each week as it changed. Their confidence in attempting splashes grew along side this, particularly for Child B who did not enjoy the muddiness of the puddle initially. In time she began to enjoy it, being seen to sit and roll in it enthusiastically experiencing for the first time the freedom of getting dirty. This opened up further opportunities for her as she became more confident to touch and experience more and more of the woodland.
Risk taking at Forest school Risk taking in a forest school environment can be defined as pushing the boundaries of your learning, trying something new and moving out of your comfort zone. In fact it would seem to be an environment that encourages the confidence to make a mistake or to fail, in the knowledge that you have the time to try again as well as the time to reflect and make changes or improve your original.
During Term 2 the children were introduced to ropes which they delighted in tying to stumps they had hit into the ground. They found tying knots very difficult but they persevered often for long periods in an attempt to get the effect they wished.
Providing a safe risk taking environment Forest school leaders tackle the issue of safety by carefully explaining how to avoid accidents, by teaching the children and adults how to use tools correctly and by giving the children lots of opportunities to practice activities safely, to have the confidence to ‘have a go’ and ask for help when it’s needed.
The forest school program is individual to each child and each setting as it offers a relevant curriculum that begins with and builds on children’s own interests and previous experience. It could be argued that quality teaching and learning in the classroom also address these fundamental considerations. However, Lindon (1999) takes the view that “a well intentioned focus on keeping children as safe as possible has shifted towards looking for anything and everything that can go wrong” (p10).
I feel that a forest school experience can go further than the experiences offered in a classroom, as it fills the gap made in our society by an ever increasing ‘safety first’ culture. Many children do not and are no longer encouraged to play outside or take risks as in other generations because of the fear of abduction, blame and legal action. Could this result in a generation of children never having the experience of playing outside independently, exploring safely and problem solving with out an adults supervision or
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confidence, and the growth of self esteem. These values are encouraged throughout the activities. Both Gooding and Smart describe it as ‘mastery of small achievable tasks’. Smart concludes that, “The concept of forest school is an extension of what every good early years setting tries to do through outdoor play” (p11).
Transition to a Forest School environment It became apparent while editing video footage collected over the year to reflect forest school through the children’s eyes that a process was emerging similar to that explained by Van Gennep’s (1960) conceptual model as a rite of passage. At the beginning of the process there is the “preparation or separation” of the child from their familiar settings environment and introducing them to the new staff, water proof clothing, the minibus and simple games they will play in the woodland. This stage could take a few weeks until the staff feel the children are confident to go into the woodland.
Once they were attending forest school a “transition” stage emerged. The children lacked confidence at the beginning to move away from the adults but once they had, they began to ask lots of questions and explored ‘feverishly’ moving quickly from one new find to another, excitedly telling adults of their finds. “Look what I have found! It’s a hole for a mole!” (Child L autumn term) It is at this time that simple rules and routines are followed for the children’s safety such as dragging a stick behind you and ‘listening time’ around the camp fire each week. It is important that the adults get to know the children and find out as much as they can about their learning styles and children’s interests as this will form the basis of future work with the children. This stage was seen to vary with the child. It may take weeks or months for the children to feel comfortable with their new environment.
‘Child A’ became very interested in mini-beasts, the adults built upon his interests including them into the program giving him limitless time each week to explore and find new ones. He naturally extended this to include classification as he found more he could compare. This lasted for several weeks and the staff followed him when his interest changed to badgers!
Once the children were confident to move through the woodland and it became more familiar to them their questions, the rate of questioning and observations changed. They became calmer and more careful, though still excited and motivated. They began to notice changes and ask specific rather than general questions about their environment. This could be seen as the ‘incorporation or consolidation’ stage as the children began to use their new skills independently. “We followed a trail down to forest school today. We had to go a different way because the badgers are having babies. Sue made some arrows out of sticks for us to follow. There are some new swings and a rope ladder. On the way back we made some arrows for Sue to follow” (an extract taken from the children’s weekly log 28.2.03)
The role of the practitioner and other adults Bruce (1997) argues that play is one of the most important settings for the encouragement of potential learning. Play involves children directing and initiating situations themselves, with a varying degree of intervention or support from adults as, “ Sensitive coordinators ” (p48). Depending on the context, the adults’ role can increase child involvement levels and positively affect potential development. Through their comments practitioners saw their role as very varied and would include; ensuring the environment is safe, allowing the children choice of equipment such as, ropes trowels and buckets, observing and valuing their self initiated learning. They felt by questioning, suggesting and providing props they could extend children's self initiated play. Dowling describes self-initiated play as spontaneous, where the practitioner can choose to be involved by playing alongside and offering a reassuring presence. Such an important aspect needs to be adopted by all the
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Sam Massey Early Years Mentor Teacher
adults who work with the children at the forest school site if this is to be a successful element for children’s potential learning. With an appropriate induction program for parents and carers a consistent approach can be adopted were play is accepted as sometimes purely imaginative and where attempts to ‘teach concepts’ may be seen by the children as intrusion and counter-productive. “The adult needs to be aware of the potential for learning in children's play, but this is a different matter from predetermining the play” Dowling (1992, p63).
A Summary of potential benefits of forest school
- The forest school program evolves from the needs of the child and includes the child’s interests.
- Children developed good self esteem in a climate of small achievable steps
- Provides a real context for language
- Provides the practitioner with an alternative view of the child and further insights into a child’s particular development.
- Beneficial to a child’s all round development, particularly in the areas of personal, social and emotional, language and communication.
- Underpins the principles laid down in the foundation stage guidelines.
- The forest school experience has been very well received by all those involved in it.
- Provides opportunities for the children to take risks, problem solve and use thinking skills.
- Complements learning in the classroom and can be transferred.
Implications for settings establishing a forest school
- The children adapt to their new environment in distinct stages.
- Adult’s role changes as the children become more confident.
- Parents would like support in maintaining the ethos at home.
- Perhaps there is a need to look further at the induction process, making it longer to ensure all staff and parents are involved and the needs of the children are met.
The study has generated a range of information for the children, practitioners, governors and the LEA regarding children’s overall development and learning through a forest school experience which may contribute towards the long-term aim in Worcestershire that by 2013 all children in primary education will have access to a forest school provision.
References.
Andersson,B.E.(1994) Public policies and early childhood education. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal , 2 (2) 19-32.
Ball, C .(1994) Start Right; The Importance of Early Learning. London: Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, RSA.
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Forest school (England) (2003) network meeting notes. Bishops Wood Environmental Centre (Jan 22).
Gilbert,N. (1993) Researching Social Life. London, SAGE Publications.
Grenier,J. (1999) The great outdoors. Nursery World (Sep 16) 12-
House of Commons (1994) Educational Provision for the Under Fives. (Report of the House of Commons Educational Committee) London, HMSO.
Lindon, J. (1999) Run the Risk. Nursery World Sep23rd. 10- Margerison,A. (1996) Self esteem: its effects on the development and learning of children with EBD. Support for learning. 11 (4) 176-
Pascal,C. & Bertrum,A.D.(1997) The Effective Early Learning Research Project. Worcester, University College Worcester.
Robson,C. (1996) Real World Research. Oxford, Blackwell.
Scott,D. & Usher, R. (1999) Researching Education. Data, Methods and Theory in Educational Enquiry. London, Cassell.
Smart J. (2001) When nature does the nurturing. Practical Pre-School Issue 28
Van Gennep,A (1996) The Rites of Passage. London Routledge & Kegan Paul
Weaver. F (1998) Children of the Forest. Nursery World (Dec 10) 14-
Worcestershire LEA (2002) Mixed age planning. Key learning and thinking skills across the primary curriculum. Worcestershire County Council.
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