A Holistic Approach to Forest School

A Holistic Approach to Forest School

Written by – Rachael @ Dinky Den

Growing up, my childhood was rich with so many opportunities to play and learn outside. My Auntie and Uncle own a farm and most weekends my cousin and I would pack up some lunch and head out exploring for the day. As a child I could often be found running through the long grass, hunting for bugs, bird watching and making mud pies. My love of outdoors extended into my adult years and I can often now be found on long walks in the countryside or along a coast, making fires and building dens with my children.

Whether you’re delivering a programme with a qualified leader or adopting approaches to enhance and strengthen your Outdoor Curriculum, the Forest School approach will lead to an abundance of benefits for everyone.

What is Forest School?

The Forest School concept originated in Scandinavia, where outdoor living and learning is embedded in society. This idea was adopted by Denmark in the 1980’s as a solution to the lack of buildings available for the number of nursery places required. Forest School was first introduced in the UK in 1993, after a group of nursery nurses from Bridgewater College visited a Danish Forest School.

The Forest School concept relies on learning by experience, allowing children to explore nature and the outdoor environment in a safe and secure way. Not only does it develop academic skills but also builds self-esteem, independence and many social skills. Forest School builds on a child’s innate motivation and positive attitude to learning, offering them the opportunities to take risk, make choices and initiate learning for themselves. By taking a child led approach, it allows learners to learn in their own time, developing skills and knowledge through hands on experiences. These may include finding and collecting things, learning about plants, trees, animals and insects, creating art and sculptures using natural materials, making shelters, other structures, campfires and playing games.

Holistic Development and its Benefits

Holistic development refers to a person’s development socially, physically, intellectually, creativity, emotionally and spiritually. It encourages children to become involved in their learning and encourages personal and collective responsibility.

A holistic approach seeks to develop a range of skills and build upon children’s strengths and interests. It instils curiosity and allows children to learn naturally and creatively. The approach fosters a more play based approach to learning, drawing upon children’s creativity, curiosity and imagination. The key to this understanding is the development of skills in observing children and of interpreting those observations.

The uniqueness of the Forest School ethos and environment are well suited to promoting holistic development. As the Forest School environment is ever changing (due to seasonal changes), it provides a variety of opportunities to develop children holistically at a range of levels throughout the year. Working in a vast and diverse area provides opportunities to capture children’s imagination and curiosity, opening many learning possibilities.

Listed below are a few ways in which Forest School sessions can be used to support a child’s holistic development. Although listed separately, many of these activities and ideas will support more than one area of development at a time.

Social

·         Expose children to sometimes new and interesting environments which will prompt children to question and discuss with peers.

·         Play a range of verbal and non-verbal games, which allows children to explore how and why communication is useful.

·         Place children in different social groupings to develop their sharing, turn taking and communication.

Physical

·         Provides opportunities for children to develop gross motor skills by climbing, rolling, throwing, digging etc.

·         Collecting and threading activities can develop children’s fine motor skills.

·         Cooking activities will provide opportunities for children to develop health and self-care skills. 

Intellectual

·         Children can be encouraged to share their own knowledge and experiences of activities and/or the environment.

·         Activities such as cooking and tool use provide opportunities for children to learn, develop and master new skills.

Creative

·         The natural environment provides a range of invitations for children to explore - creating their own games, art and narratives.

·         Changing seasons provides opportunities for children to transfer their skills and creativity using different materials eg, leaves, snow, flowers.

·         Open ended and natural materials allow children to use their imagination.

Emotional

·         By offering activities at varying degrees of challenge it supports children to develop resilience.

Spiritual

·         Linked with social, children can experience different backgrounds, religions or beliefs by being placed in different social groupings.

·         Linked with emotional, by providing reflective opportunities it can encourage children to effectively express their own beliefs and points of view.

“It would not be too bold to assert that direct and indirect experience of nature has been and may possibly remain a critical component in human physical, emotional, intellectual, and even moral development.” (Kahn and Kellert, 2002, p. vii).