With butterflies in my stomach and occasional wiggly worm I will attempt to reflect on the differences between what I have done in setting up Mini Rangers and dealing with the adventure of setting up a forest school.
I set up Mini Rangers through a keen interest in the effect of how outdoor learning could improve the outcomes for children in my setting. This was before I had embarked on the Forest School course. Much of my own knowledge was academic from the books I had bought and the experience of those around me. I looked for a framework to devise activities from to begin with, I settled on a phonics framework. My reasoning was simple, in the second Early Years Ofsted Report 2014 it was said:
‘The parents who teach, whether they realise they are doing it or not, give
their children the greatest advantages from the very start. Teaching for small
children is not blackboards and desks, it is counting bricks when building
a tower, learning nursery rhymes and familiar songs, or gently coaching a
child to put their own arms into their coat. The most successful early years
providers, whoever they are, are focused on helping children to learn.’ (Ofsted 2014)
My aim was to bring this simplicity into a weekly group benefiting the community making it a low cost group that childminders could attend as well as parents, grandparents, mums and dads. The idea was to support our community of teachers with ideas and respite in an outdoor setting.
It was stated in the annual Early Years Ofsted Report in July 2013 that children had been starting school lacking the ability to :-
To sit still and listen
To be aware of other children
To understand the word no and the borders it
sets for behaviour
To understand the word stop and that such a
phrase might be used to prevent danger
To be potty trained and able to go to the loo
To recognise their own name
To speak to an adult to ask for needs
To be able to take off their coat and put on shoes
To talk in sentences
To open and enjoy a book
So with this in mind I set about formulating a structure that would encourage children to become more self regulatory, but still with the loving and supporting hand of someone familiar.
I first started with the length of the session. I love being outdoors and can cope with being there for the entire day, every day. This is not practical when dealing with the needs of young children. It was important that the session should be short, but structured. This was so that children could attend each week knowing there would be constants and so develop their own plans for arrival.
As I made plans for developing the area, I kept in mind the need for change, the environment and the impact of my plans. The ease and the inclusion of the children. I wanted the area to stay natural, but encourage more nature in. This involved using logs from trees that had to be chopped down and developing seating for the sharing area.
I now understand that the difference between this and the forest school ethos is that we should leave no trace. This is okay if you are dipping into an area once in a while, but for prolonged use of the same area I feel that there are sacrifices that you make and there are certain advantages too which I will explain. When I first found this area in Etherow Country Park it was a designated 'Education Area'. Perfect in location for a group of mums with prams, wheelchair users, and anyone who may have a problem with walking through a woodland including wobbly two year olds.
It was a little difficult to access the wildlife though as all the banks were overgrown with brambles and nettles and the woodland path was covered in tree roots making it difficult to push a buggy through or walk if you are very young or very old. Therefore I needed to view the area at the height and ability of a toddler. Bringing nature in included sourcing pallets to make a bug hotel. Ensuring that no logs were removed from the area so that I would have plenty of hiding places for the woodlouse and worms I was planning on discovering with the children. With the help of some volunteers I had two planters built. I used some cut logs to create a log circle and I then designated areas for sharing and for a mud kitchen. The area took on some of the character that I felt children would have more fun exploring. I had also encouraged children to climb the banks using ropes and logs for stability, unfortunately this had to be stopped as the bank was the only thing stopping the reservoir from breaking through which is an example that I shared with the children of erosion and the damage we can do as humans.
Creating an area is very different from finding a woodland and I would not discover the difference until attending the forest school course and developing forest school sessions how different this would feel. I can't help feeling that my initial enthusiasm for this very exciting beginning was some what dampened by the forest school course as everything I had done had been about a passion for children to be able to explore safely, the difference in the forest school education is to find a place that children can explore once they understand the risks for themselves.
I feel that this is the crux of my disillusion when dealing with under 5's. I think as adults we have a duty to prepare an environment that we can slowly introduce risks to. The log circle created a danger that children would at first ask for their persons support for, but after a while start to navigate alone. It was prepared in much the same way a tight rope walk is prepared between two trees, not exactly a natural occurrence but one that be managed and mastered through ones own perseverance.
I also created a Fire square which I would inform parents and children of how to manage a fire with so many people and children. There would have to be boundaries and they would have to be clear enough for everyone to understand, see fire risk assessments.
When developing the Forest school with older children in mind, setting up an area was done in stages where I saw more danger from not establishing a boundary than from what would go on inside that boundary. I could be more inventive with how I established that boundary and involve the children, who by now were steady enough on their feet to be able to avoid obstacles and jump over sensitive or developing areas. The boundary was marked by wool on a tree, the children recounted to me how they would acknowledge a piece of wool around a tree trunk as a boundary marker and a piece of wool hanging from a branch as a perimeter marking.
Using ropes and found wood I designated bits to be the tool area, an area not to be invaded without adult supervision, a fire area was not designated until the children wanted a snack and then we talked about where best to have a fire that would cause little impact to the environment. The same rules to the fire are employed, but children are shown the respect position to safely interact with the fire. Although this is modeled to the under 5's they constantly needed to be reminded and frequently were expelled from the fire area. The older children were able to light the fire and feed the fire whilst adhering to the safety requirements.
What I have not mentioned also was the ability to state a ratio requirement. During the under 5 sessions adults and children were invited at their own discretion. The forest school sessions were more rigid. a maximum number of children were allowed 15, this meant that assessing their learning was a little easier as I would interact in different ways but on an individual basis with all of them. During the under 5 sessions, I would rely on their supervising adult to let me know of any impact our sessions had. This would vary entirely, but I was constantly vigilant that most of the under 5's enjoyed the story sharing time, the snack time where they engaged with the volunteer handing out the snack and drink. I watched while they selected their activities which would mostly be playing with the pots and pans and spoons to make mud pies. Children would occasionally embark on a den making experiment or construction of some kind. On reflection I think I would introduce more group games to introduce the stop go type instruction based games that children need to play in a group setting. Encouraging school readiness through these types of games fills me with an awkwardness fuelled by the thought of lack of purposeless that these games give me. I like a purpose. I know its a form of copy me a matching games on a large scale to encourage the elusive readiness.
Meanwhile in the Forest there was no shortage of games, in fact that was how the majority of the time was spent. Setting up a base camp and then launching into a game of capture the flag or tig. The children would come back when problems were afoot, someone wasn't playing by the rules or sabotaging someones base camp or just winning too much. These social interactions could come with frustrations, but always with an urgency to sort them out. When things got too fraught there was always the distraction of making snack.
It is unfair of me to compare the two as the under 5 group has been run for two years with many experiments into different activities and explorations into how they learn, whilst the primary aim in the forest was to have fun and be with others in a challenging environment.
I think that my aims for the two groups were different two, with the under 5's many are not attending any other group setting and are certainly not at school yet so part of them coming is get them ready for working in a large group . The forest school has a different aim, to allow children to explore, challenge, learn what they want to learn, to respect others and work in a team.
Forest school is challenging there is no doubt, it has taught me the value of planning, working with a team getting the team to work with either me or an alpha child. I look forward to going back to the forest with an even smaller ratio of children and enjoying it even more.
Forest school has added to the under 5's group in that I understand there are safety considerations to take on board when dealing with children under the age of 3, who maybe do not have the understanding of the dangers that exist. Two years on and I can see the value of the community presence of an outdoor group. It is hard to manage it with my childminding duties, but really worthwhile. The children who attend my setting benefit enormously from the large group, meeting others in the community and exploring their boundaries. I still feel that what they learn here they bring back to my setting and the experiences lend themselves to other visits that we do. I also see the freedom that they have the ability to be loud, to throw things, to be dirty, to essentially have permission to do the things they need to do to grow and learn. The pressure seems to be less when we are outdoors.
None of this would have been possible without the volunteers:
All of those at Jubilee PreSchool
Marina Griffin
Steve
Mark Howard
Sue Howard
Helena Broadhurst
and many more who attended and poured ideas into this on a weekly basis.
Helena Broadbent
Neil Commins my loyal and enthusiastic partner in all things. Neil is a trained childminder and incredibly inventive practitioner. This is a little game that he invented called 'running down the hill really fast' it was probably the best game ever!
Melanie Commins and Biscuit the dog
