F... is for Forest School

"Forest School is an inspirational process, that offers ALL learners regular opportunities to achieve and develop confidence and self-esteem through hands-on learning experiences in a woodland or natural environment with trees. Forest School is a specialised learning approach that sits within and compliments the wider context of outdoor and woodland education."     

Forest School Association (UK's professional body for representing & promoting forest school in the UK)

To continue with the Back to Basics series, we'll be looking at the concept of Forest School in this post. To start off with, let's set the scene with a brief look back; the Institute of Outdoor Learning has written two articles, giving a useful background to the movement. The first article discusses the early influences of outdoor learning, then gives an overview of the educational pioneers who were advocates of outdoor play and the development of a relationship with nature. The second article focuses on how forest schools have grown since 1993, the challenges faced by the movement and the impact these have had on the the future of forest schools.

If you are researching this topic, you'll be pleased to know that there is a great deal of research in this area; this literature review of outdoor learning gathers research in fieldwork and outdoor visits, outdoor adventure education and school grounds/community projects. A report  published by the Forestry Commission gives an evaluation of forest school in England and Wales and its impact on children of different ages. The Education Resource Information Center (ERIC) has a collection of articles freely available online. Don't forget the Library Portal page - Usearch and E-Resources. A search for 'outdoor learning' in the library catalogue will give many results for forest schools as well as adventure education.

There are a number of news articles that may be of interest, which also provide case studies of nurseries and schools adopting outdoor learning.