Forest School

What is Forest School?

Our Forest School sessions are child-led, focusing on the children and what they want to achieve. Some may decide to learn how to craft, track birds or make fires, others might prefer to run in the woods, jump in puddles or climb trees. Whichever one they choose the important thing is to be outside, have fun and connect with nature.

Their confidence, imagination and physical ability is developed through unstructured nature awareness games and activities.

Forest School roots reach back to Scandinavia where children take part, all year round, in nature clubs to learn and play in natural environments.

Forest School is a long-term process of regular sessions, rather than a one-off or infrequent visits. See our Outdoor Learning page or Enrichment Days for one off or shorter programmes.

We work with many schools and nurseries in the East Sussex area, early booking essential! Our Forest School Sessions take place at our woodland site, near Laughton, East Sussex, or we can come to deliver Forest School at your site.

Forest School Sessions in Sussex

Our Forest School Sessions take place at our woodland site, near Laughton, East Sussex, or we can come to deliver Forest School at your school or site.

Dates  2021 

The course takes place at Mill Woods, near Laughton, East Sussex, BN8 6BP.

Activities Include:

Animal Prints

  • Making crafts from natural resources
  • Learning how to make fire safely
  • Looking for flora and fauna in their natural environment
  • Foraging, cooking and eating as a group
  • Making dens shelters
  • Tracking animals
  • Ropes and knots
  • Having fun outdoors
Can my child join a session?

Wooden discs with wool

Forest School is a long term process and we found that the best way to do it is to work directly with local schools.
If you are a parent and want your child to be involved in Forest School, introduce the idea to their school!
If you are a school looking to start Forest School, all you need to provide is the Forest School ethos, available members of staff to work alongside the Forest School Leader, medical information on any particular condition’s, and some enthusiastic children!

Why Forest School?

forest school kids in shelter

Because being outdoors helps your child development in many ways:

Health and Fitness:

  • It reduces considerably the risk of becoming overweight. A child that enjoys physical activities is less likely to become obese later in its life.
  • Being outdoor improves distance vision and lowers the chance of near sightedness.
  • Nature appears to improve symptoms of ADHD in children by 30%.

Language and concentration:

  • It improves academic performance; schools with environmental education programs score higher on standardized tests.
  • Daily exposure to natural settings increases children’s ability to focus.

Social:

  • Nature makes you nicer, enhance social interactions and help building your confidence.
  • Children’s stress levels fall within minutes of seeing green spaces.
  • Kids and teenagers give a true and sincere testimony of how they feel about nature after one of our many courses.
Train your own staff

Shelter Building

If you would like to provide Forest School sessions at your school, then the best option is to get your own staff qualified.

Our Level 3 Certificate for Forest School Leaders is led by Marina Robb, who is a Forest School Assocation Endorced Trainer and author of ‘The Essential Guide to Forest School & Nature Pedagogy’ and ‘Learning with Nature’ and takes place at our woodland site in Laughton, East Sussex.

Once you have 1 or 2 staff qualified to run your Forest School sessions, then we recommend The Outdoor Teacher’s Forest School Activities Online Training as an affordable option for getting more staff involved in supporting roles.

Marina and the team at Circle of Life Rediscovery have over 25 years’ experience in training professionals and inspiring thousands of people of all ages and backgrounds into the outdoors in both the UK, Ireland, China, SE Asia and Portugal.