Forest Schools

Widney is very proud to be running the Forest School program across all year groups in KS2. Forest Schools originates in Denmark and Sweden in the 1980s as a solution to the lack of indoor facilities for pre-schoolers. Its popularity resulted in British teachers visiting  Scandinavia in the 1990s and its introduction into the UK.Due to the strong belief that Forest School enriches pupils’ experiences, both academically and personally, we offer our students here at Widney the opportunity to engage in Forest school sessions throughout their time with us. The key features of forest school include:

• The use of the natural outdoor environment in all weathers.
• A child-led approach to children’s learning which is fun, unhurried and spontaneous.
• children being in contact with nature using all of their senses.
• Builds confidence and self-esteem as they are responsible for making their own decisions and are carefully supported to achieve them.
• Allows every child to have a voice, especially those who find it hard to communicate in a more conventional environment.
• A high adult-to-child ratio, which allows children to undertake new experiences and challenges whilst taking appropriate risks.
• Trained adults and facilitators- Miss Baker is our Forest School leader.