The Telegraph – Becky Dickinson
” The afternoon sun covers the playground in autumnal light. A group of four and five-year-olds gather around an open fire. The heat isn’t strictly necessary – it’s only September, but it wouldn’t be Forest School without a fire. After a pep talk on not entering the ‘fire circle’ (a precautionary bucket of water is on standby) the pupils from St George’s Infant School in Northam, Devon are let loose to explore the patch of wilderness behind their playground. The transformation is palpable and swift. Suddenly, they are children once more, not pupils – sitting in a circle listening to an adult – but children rolling down grassy banks, hunting for bugs and sliding in mud. This is Forest School – a Scandinavian import that is becoming increasingly widespread in primary schools across the UK. The approach, which was introduced to Britain in the early nineties, involves taking children into an outdoor, ideally woodland, environment to develop confidence and self- esteem through hands-on learning experiences.”(more)