Think and Act as Owners

Tighnabruich Forest Schools

How lovely it is to see children interacting with the natural environment.  How wonderful to be able to enable that experience.  Bute Community Forest will host North Bute Primary Forest School Programme.  The whole event will be inspiring, fun for all and create a memorable experience for the next generation custodians of our forest.

14 children will take part in the first sessions facilitated by Michaela Hunter and David Blair.  They will also mentor Elizabeth McMillan as she progresses through her Forest Schools Practitioner training. 

Forest School is a long-term student-led, educational process that promotes, observes and explicitly supports the social, emotional and physical development of children, young people and adults in an outdoor, preferably woodland environment.

 Key to supporting this process is an acknowledgement of the role of the practitioner as a ‘significant other’ who can encourage the development of self esteem through appropriate matching of task/activity to a student’s preferred learning style.  The development of the role of ‘significant other’ occurs through the long-term relationship that is built up over the duration of a Forest School. This relationship is founded on the twin principles of risk and trust.

 The successful matching of tasks/activities to a student’s preferred learning style occurs through continual detailed observation and evaluation of a student’s learning and behaviour over the duration of a Forest School programme.   This process of observation and evaluation begins with a ‘base-line assessment’ either provided by the referring agency or conducted during an initial period of Forest School (typically 6 weeks). Throughout the programme continuous observations are made, monitoring the daily progress of the students attending and which culminate in a detailed final report for each student on the Forest School Programme.

 It is only through high staffing ratios that leaders are able to observe individual students, match tasks to preferred learning styles and work intensely with students on the Forest School Programme.

Remember to come back for updates on how the children get on.