Forest School at St Buryan Academy

Forest School at
St Buryan Academy
Pupils in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 at St Buryan Academy are having weekly forest school sessions in Anita's Garden. This garden is a special place that has been developed by the children, for the children and has over 60 young trees including several fruit trees. It has our own mini Minack, an amphitheater for story telling and imaginative play. It has a fire circle for cooking and eating delicious food. We also have a pond, raised beds and more... 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.
Summer Term 2026
 
During the Summer we had lots of hot, very sunny sessions that needed to be carefully managed, setting up play spaces in the shadiest parts of the garden and drinking plenty of water! We also decided that fire lighting wouldn't be safe due to the general risk of wild fires. Instead we did lots of imaginative play using our lose parts, practiced our den building for shade, and some children got creative making beads from elder which they dried and painted.
Autumn Term 2025
Summer Term 2025
Lighting fires was a big hit this term and children are now taking charge of prepping and lighting the main fire as well as getting proficient with the flint and steel! This takes a lot of determination and perseverance. The children have also loved being involved in preparing and cooking food for everyone- and eating it of course. We have made damper bread, elderflower fritters, quesadillas, smores, savoury scones... and more! The older children still love the opportunity be creative and messy in the mud kitchen, and this kind of play helps to develop all kinds of social and communication skills.
 Flashback to 2023 and 2024!