Forest School

2023 - 2024

Reception's visit to Forest School

Year 1's Forest School adventures begin...

Week 1

The children began with a recap of the Forest School rules and a tour of the site, which has been developed further since their last opportunity. They went on an alphabet hunt, making capital letters out of sticks once they found a lower case letter. They played games and enjoyed exploring the site, obviously involving mud! Finished off with hot chocolate and a biscuit. 

Week 2...

The children enjoyed a different experience this week due to the weather. Monday's group enjoyed a dry day whereas Wednesday's group had a muddier soggier day! The children had fun with leaves and a parachute, made Cheerio bird feeders and investigated making boats. On Wednesday, the children made themselves a mud slide! Therefore, we needed to use the hosepipe before home time!

Week 3...

One of our favourites... toasting marshmallows on the fire. The children also had fun playing 1,2,3 where are you? (The Forest School version of Hide and Seek.)

Week 5...

Year 1 enjoyed a special visit from the Easter Bunny at Forest School! 

They also loved our new construction and digging area we have just created. Who would have thought we would also be measuring worms! We created Easter Bunny art work using the Hapazome, leaf dying technique. Then enjoyed a chocolate lolly left for us as a treat.

Year 4 are enjoying their turn at Forest School Club. They have been busy planting some Summer flowering bulbs to brighten up our site. They enjoyed toasting marshmallows and tried to light a fairy fire. This proved trickier than they expected, so more practice is needed. 

The big kids also enjoyed our new Construction site!

Year 5 have enjoyed their afternoon sessions and Year 6 have loved their after school club opportunities. To make the most of all the mud, the children were challenged to build a bridge in groups... it needed to be strong enough to support Mrs M! The mud slide was reinvented and I think it just keeps getting muddier! Outdoor Xylophones were made along with wind catchers, den building, pond dipping, planting acorns, parachute and raft making, along with lots of imagination! Oh and mud slinging darts! Even Mr G has enjoyed some sessions with us all!   The adventures continue...

Year 4's Forest School adventures have begun... Mud, mud and more mud!

In Autumn 1, Year 6 have enjoyed their Forest School curriculum sessions and Year 3 have enjoyed the Forest School after school club. We have loved learning to whittle, lots of autumn crafts and as usual lots of mud fun! It has been lovely to observe our frog friends on our site too!

Summer 2

For our last half term of our first year at Forest School, Year 6, Year 1 and EYFS have enjoyed their sessions. 

Year 6 explored the site and participated in Outdoor and Adventurous Activities including shelter building, pond dipping, orienteering and map reading. They happily made their own mud tribe and took the opportunity for some creative, imaginative play with a bit of freedom!

EYFS loved their time at Forest School exploring the site and going on a Bear Hunt. Along with mud and spoon races, crafting, weaving, fairies, bubbles and lots of fun in the mud! 

We are looking forward to our second year of Forest School and all the children building upon the experiences they have had this year and making lots of new memories and new skills along the way!

Our Forest School Working Party

A HUGE thank you to our wonderful families who gave up a Saturday to help further develop our Forest School site for our awesome children to enjoy! 

Here are a few photos of our committed volunteers.

A BIG  thank you to Brad Ascroft and GBA for providing and building us our wonderful new outdoor classroom, which will provide some much needy shelter! 

Summer 1

Year 5 have been fortunate to enjoy the sunshine at their Forest School sessions this half term. Year 2 have participated in the after school club. The pond was full of life which made pond dipping extra fun! The children have enjoyed den building, minibeast hunting, playing games, along with developing our site further by building a bug hotel and bird hide. The children are loving the long grass for playing 1,2,3 Where are you? Our outdoor classroom is nearly ready too!

Spring 2

Year 4 have enjoyed their Forest School adventures this half term. Year 3 have made the most of their the opportunity to be involved at our after school club. From den building, kite building, pond dipping, roasting marshmallows, outdoor yoga, hide and seek, a mindfulness scavenger hunt and lots of mud!

Spring 1

This half term, Year 3 are loving the curriculum sessions. Year 5 are able to participate in the after school club. The new year has started off with a cold spell and we have a lot of mud still on site! To make it even better we created bubbly muddy puddles! The children loved playing a trust game with a partner, where one of them was blindfolded and were led to a tree. They had to get to know their tree and then find it from touch. They displayed great team work when building some impressive dens. They are using their imaginations brilliantly! It appears most children just love to get muddy!

Lots more Forest School fun... from den building to toasting marshmallows on the campfire! The children have had fun painting with mud, building rafts and going on a signs of Spring hunt taking photos on the iPads. The children loved the opportunity to go pond dipping. 

Autumn 2

This half term, Year 2 are enjoying the afternoon curriculum sessions. 15 children participate on a Monday afternoon and the rest of the class on a Wednesday afternoon. The weather has not been as kind but the children do not seem to mind!

Xylophones class are experiencing Forest School After School Club and the muddier the better for the Year 5 & 6 pupils!

Double Basses enjoying Forest School...

From playing in the mud kitchen to getting very muddy to toasting marshmallows, drinking hot chocolate to keep warm, playing games including hide and seek and jumping in muddy puddles! They enjoyed making their very own Stickman too. Lots of fun!

Xylophones at After School Club

Who knew that children in year 5 & 6 still love to get really muddy! They have enjoyed toasting marshmallows, eating S'mores and drinking hot chocolate to warm up. Working as a team to make a TCP natural collage, puddle jumping and just getting as muddy as possible. They are busy helping develop our site with exciting new projects too. 

A big thank you to David Birkbeck and GBA for helping us develop our Forest School site. 

Mrs Marshall, Miss Latham and Mrs Moores are proud to have introduced Forest School to TCP and are currently very busy with our Forest School qualifications. We have launched our Year 3 six week Pilot session every Monday afternoon. The children and staff are loving it!

In session 1 we introduced the 8 Year 3 children to Forest School, explaining the rules and spotting hazards on our site sweep. The children worked well as a team to create their own Forest School flag using all natural creative materials. 

In session 2 we played some Forest School games. We made our own natural noughts and crosses grid and built stick towers. We worked with a partner to get to know a tree. One of us was blindfolded and we guided our partner to a tree, they had to feel and describe the tree, before moving away and trying to guess which one was their tree.

Autumn 1

Over the Summer holidays the site was further developed... we now have a fenced off area along with a pond. We have a fun stepping stone pathway, a tunnel and proving very popular is our mud kitchen. It is very exciting. Year 1 are enjoying the opportunity of being the first to do Forest School sessions. We have been on a bear hunt...

The Gruffalo has made an appearance too!

Adventure Crew @ TCP After School club

Year 4 are the first class enjoying participating in the after school club. More photos will be added each week. 

A rainy muddy Forest School!

On Friday 30th September we experienced our first rainy session. The children loved it and got as muddy as possible. We had a natural mud kitchen this week! Muddy puddles were jumped in, faces splashed with mud and even a bridge constructed to cross an ever growing puddle. Year 1 and Year 4 children having fun in the mud!

Art work at Forest School

Year 1 made clay hedgehog sculptures at Forest School to link their art work to the outdoors. The children enjoyed scavenging for natural materials suitable for making prickles, eyes and noses. 

Year 4 at after school club worked brilliantly as a team to make 3D maps of our Forest School site. 

Pond dipping @ Forest School

Year 1 are the lucky class who have been the first to pond dip in our new pond!

Toasting marshmallows