It was my first session at the forest school today.  I joined the morning and afternoon sessions with different groups attending.  In the morning a boys only reception group attended (22 in total) with 2 teachers, 1 TA and 1 trainee teacher to support the children.  Tom (forest school leader) put an orange string around the campsite to indicate how far the children were allowed to go within the campsite.  All the children I spoke to knew about these boundaries and that they should not walk within the circle of the base camp but around it.  On arrival Tom welcomed the children, they arrived by minibus and then we all walked to basecamp.  Tom showed the children how to light a fire using fire steels and cotton pads.  All children had the opportunity to choose whether they wanted to participate in the activity or not which I thought was different from the way children are thought in a formal school environment.  Tom explained to me that he feels strongly about letting the children explore the forest school and initiate their own play, instead of adults telling them what to do.  I personally think this is great because children can freely choose what they want to do and the adults can assist them by extending their learning.  Some of the children chose to build a den by using long sticks and moving and lifting them around which helps with their physical abilities and develops their social and team working skills.

In the afternoon a small group of homeschooled children arrived with their parents.  They also tried out the fire sticks and most of them joined in the activity to make fire.  It was interesting to see that although most of the children in this group have been coming to forest school for over a year, they were not interacting with each other much and played mostly either with their parents or siblings.  Note: I could explore how the forest school environment might affect/increase homeschooled children’s confidence?