Thomas A'Becket Infant School
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Forest School
Outdoor Learning
Our Outdoor Learning programme includes regular full-days of learning throughout the year in our Forest School area. Our Forest School is based within the school grounds and is home to many different trees and plants, as well as a pond, fire circle, mud kitchen, obstacle and den building apparatus, bug hunting equipment and age-appropriate tools. Our Forest School ethos promotes engagement with nature and the outdoors, which boosts cognitive development and leads to healthier, happier minds, contributing towards our children fulfilling their potential in every aspect of their lives.
Blue Peter Green Badges
In addition to the children’s time at Forest School, Year 1 and Year 2 children learn about their environment to obtain their Blue Peter Green Badges. To meet the criteria for their badges the children learn about recycling, composting and how to use the natural world to create a pieces of art.
Volunteering at Forest School
We have a vibrant and upbeat volunteer community at Forest School. The volunteer community consists of parents and grandparents, who enjoy the outdoors and are involved in different ways. Some volunteers choose to support their child’s class, working with children directly and others prefer to come in and undertake maintenance in the outdoor areas. Other volunteers with a particular passion, such as bee keeping, come into Forest School to give short talks to our children. If you would like to find out more about volunteering at Forest School please contact Katie Larkham (Outdoor Learning Leader) – klarkham@tabinfant.org.uk
Fun in the Forest Club
We offer an after-school Forest School club for each year group at our school. This is an opportunity for children to use our fantastic Forest School facilities in a ‘Stay and Play’ capacity for one hour after school. As a special treat, children at the club enjoy a hot chocolate and a biscuit around the fire circle. Places are limited.
Funding for Forest School
Our Forest School is funded purely through donations and monies raised via our Fun in the Forest Club. If you would like to donate financially or have any equipment you think would benefit our Forest School environment, then please contact Katie Larkham (Outdoor Learning Leader) – klarkham@tabinfant.org.uk
Would you like to
help at Forest School?
Six Principles of Forest School
At Thomas A Becket we base our Forest School experiences for our children on the six principles of Forest School:
1. Developing a relationship between learners and the natural world that features mutuality and compassion.
2. Facilitating a programme of regular contact with the natural world that make deeper, caring nature connections.
3. Working in a learner-centred way whereby an ‘equal’ learning community is developed where there is a combination of autonomous and communal learning, featuring joint decision making regarding the learning. Forest School follows a constructivist approach whereby the learning, in and of, the real natural world and the learners themselves emerges.
4. Risk taking in a safe context is encouraged, enabling learners to move into their learning zones where they can manage their own risks, be they emotional, physical, cognitive or social risks.
5. Developing the whole person, supporting cognitive processes and fostering creative, resilient, physically healthy independent learners.
6. Practitioners who are qualified and continually reflect on, question and develop, their own learning and Forest School facilitation.
