Outdoor Learning

‘Forest Schools’ is an innovative approach to schooling targeted for children ages 2 – 9 years; Nursery age to primary school year 4. It shows a different view to how children should be taught in the first few and most important early years of their childhood. Schools that follow this approach are normally set (as the name suggests) near, next to or even better inside a good size woodland or outdoor activity area. They encourage, support and enable children to explore and discover the outside world for themselves. This is something that is so unappreciated in primary schooling of today; especially in foundation phase/stage classes. There seems to be so many health and safety rules to say what children should and shouldn’t, or are/apparently aren’t capable of doing. This can sometimes greatly hinder a child’s development and the process of children discovering who they are, also quite simply a child’s happiness.

 

 

‘Forest Schools’ was first originated in Sweden in 1950, and arrived in the UK in 1990. This makes forest schools still quite a recent development in education. In this short time it has shown to bring some great results within children’s development. Encouraging children to Learn and build upon skills they are born with that are important and useful for everyday life situations. This approach is similar to Montessori’s method in the sense that children have so much freedom and choice in what they can do and learn. For example, there are a number of useful points on Page 33 of the book ‘Forest Schools for all’ by (Knight S, 2011). They back up this point and state how forest schools can aid in, “The development of greater independence and pupils’ confidence in guiding their own learning”.

“A study done in Sweden over a 13 month period found that children located in urban environments were much less happy than those attending forest school kindergarten in a countryside environment. … The study observed children in the city becoming irritable when they were interrupted, their stress levels rose significantly and their ability to concentrate fell. When they could not pay attention there was a clear tendency to be selfish and inconsiderate and show aggression. The forest school children seemed much more respectful to each other.” Forest Schools (2013) (Accessed on 17/04/13).

This quote was from the official Forest Schools website, and although it is a very long quote, it shows how effective ‘Forest Schools’ can be, and how it can change a child’s life for the better; not just mentally but physically too. For example, the simple point of children being exposed to the outdoor air. Which with the hold that video games have on children today, can do a lot of good. So if the current generation were to grow up, simply with a childhood consisting of many strong positive experiences in the outdoor environment, it could change the hold of video games and, (it sounds extreme but), potentially lower the shockingly high percentage of childhood obesity of today.

 

 

Reference List:

• Forest Schools (2013), (Accessed on 17/04/13), (Accessed on Website: http://www.forestschools.com/a-history)

• Knight S (2011), (Page 33), Forest School for all, London: Sage.