Forest School Sessions
Learning and playing in rich woodland or outdoor spaces, can generate emotional literacy, respect for ecology, practical skills with tools and fire, and a sustained personal connection with nature
Forest School Services
As qualified Level 8 Forest School Practitioners and teacher CPD training providers, we are happy to work with local authorities, schools, homeschools and out of school projects across the Central Belt to identify your Outdoor Learning, Learning for Sustainability, Forest School and Outdoor Play needs.
SCQF Forest based accredited learning
FOLA AWARDS
We can support your school in the following ways:
Partnership delivery of class-based awards where we work with a class teacher for 6 half day sessions, and 3 additional planning sessions to plan and team-teach and deliver the six- pronged Junior Forester Award. The outcome of the programme results in all the children receiving their Junior Forester Awards and the teacher feeling confident to manage the delivery of the Awards solo to other classes in the school. The programme includes a range of hands-on activities delivered in your grounds on the following programme sections:
- Managing Risk
- Tree and Plant ID
- Woodland Habitats
- Habitat Creation
- Woodland Management
- Forestry Ambassadors
We can also provide lighter touch support for more confident teachers with planning sessions or on-site support or team teaching planned and costed according to their needs.
Training in the delivery of the Junior Forester Award will also feature in our CPD programme
We can support your school in the following ways:
With our in-house design practice we are experienced in the planning and project management/delivery of enriched school grounds play and learning features (click through to Wildside Designs). We can also support you with:
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- School grounds consultation including a review and recommendations for physical developments,
- Planning for the management of loose parts play
- Creation of School Outdoor Play Policy and parent/carer liaison
- Creation of Risk/Benefit Assessments of play areas/grounds
- Creation of effective Grounds Maintenance Plans.
For case studies of projects please see:
Judi Legg
meet the trainers
Judi is founding director of Wildside Adventures and Wildside Designs. She is a Level 8 qualified (FOLA) Forest and Outdoor Learning Awards trainer and Wildside has been an approved centre for the delivery of these SCQF qualifications for Primary 7, secondary phase and adults in a variety of spaces. She has also been making UK playable greenspaces for 21 years. And her award-winning designs feature in the UK Government ‘Designs for Play’ guide. In all her work she demonstrates her interest in children’s engagement with playful outdoor learning and experimentation with authentic materials and natural landscapes, promoting a focus on construction-based inclusive, challenging and non-prescriptive play offers. See also co-authorship of This Place is Like a Building Site and Routledge’s ‘How to Grow a Playspace’
Dani MacDonald
meet the trainers
Dani is Level 8 qualified (FOLA) Forest and Outdoor Learning Awards trainer, outdoors instructor and former PE teacher. She brings her knowledge of wood based crafts and natural fibres into many of her forest school sessions
Frances
meet the trainers
Evie Waddell
meet the trainers
George
meet the trainers
Leader/Teacher Training
Wildside offers a wide range of teacher training opportunities, delivered by former teachers, usually as 2-hour, after school sessions in the woods – but with lots of hot chocolate and fire making. We are happy to offer bespoke training to schools identifying particular CPD needs. We can also take teachers, support staff and others working with children and young people, through their own forest school FOLA Awards up to Level 6, and offer team teaching to adults wishing to deliver Junior Forester Awards.
Managing Risk
As a contributor to movement towards Risk Benefit Assessment in children’s play spaces we have several decades of experience creating assessments and supporting play/learning providers to do the same. The process of creating assessments can be dauting and anxiety producing, however it can solidly underpin your judgements about what is an acceptable level of risk in your setting for children who will always need to test themselves. If your setting would like support to go through this process, either for the whole grounds/playspace, or for a particular feature, including use by children with disabilities and additional support needs, then please get in touch.
Examples of the process and robust ethos which underpins it please see the Managing Risk in Play Provision. You can also download a worked example developed by the Play Safety Forum however it is important to change them to fit your setting and your children.
Many schools now have, or would like to have, sand and water play provision and we have worked with many local authorities and ROSPA to generate particular sand and water risk/benefit assessments with integral maintenance schedules.
Working with loose materials
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