Forest School at St Buryan Academy
Forest School at St Buryan Academy
Pupils at St Buryan Academy are so lucky to be offered a sequence of forest school sessions every term. Our youngest pupils, in Reception and Year 1, will now be getting it every week, all year round! These sessions will be taken by level 3 trained forest school leaders Elise Wilson and/or Lisa Rendle, with other support staff too.
During the sessions, we seek to give children an opportunity to be active outdoors, connecting with nature, learning great survival skills, improving their understanding of the natural world and developing important personal and interpersonal qualities. We know that so many of these skills are important for life, well-being and can hugely benefit their success in the classroom.
Clothing for Forest School
It is important that children are appropriately dressed for their sessions. We always ask that they are wearing comfortable clothing for being active, and clothes that are ok to get muddy and possibly a bit worn or damaged as we use tools, paints and spend time on our knees and sitting on the ground. In winter they need lots of warm layers, waterproof trousers, waterproof coat, wellies and a hat. In the summer, a sunhat and suncream is important. We can help with clothing if you are not able to provide this so please come and let us know.
Activities in Forest School
We have some regular activities that we love to offer children, these include; fire lighting, cooking, using tools, den building, painting and crafts, gardening and playing in the mud kitchen. With some of these activities, we need to prepare children carefully, making sure they are doing them safely and under correct supervision, in accordance with our risk assessments. Children love the responsibility of being able to use real tools, light fires and cooking for one and other. This is great for building self-confidence.
Tools
We show children how to safely use all kinds of real tools, this is so good for confidence building and usually requires some real strength and stamina!
Cooking on the Fire
When the weather allows, we love to involve the children in preparing and cooking on the fire. We find that children will taste all kinds of foods that they might not normally be willing to, when they are with friends, sat around the camp fire.
Autumn Term 2023
Porthcurno Class
Porthcurno Class are full of ideas and creativity and are showing us how how they can use the skills learnt in previous sessions to make their own excellent crafts. They have been super excited by the wildlife living in our garden and we are so pleased that Anita's Garden is such a marvelous haven for wildlife and the children are so keen and observant finding it! We've also been able to practice lighting fires and are starting to learn how to safely use the knives for whittling.
Penberth Class
Poor weather for two weeks in a row hasn't stopped us getting outside. Last week we went on a welly walk and collected leaves, flowers and petals for our art work. This week we looked at acorns, tested to see if they would float or sink- only the ones that sink are viable- then planted our own oak trees! We also did some story telling, acting out 'We're going on a Bear Hunt' and then adapting it and going on our own dinosaur hunt!