What are Forest Schools

[Music]

hi there

my name is joan whelan and i’m

chairperson of the irish

forest school association i’m here on

this beautiful

april morning and very close to dublin

city

centre and very close to the site

where a local national school

established the first

irish forest school project

back in 2012 and indeed where it’s still

going strong so what’s forest school

well

it’s a it’s an old idea tracing its

lineage all the way back to uh people

like rousseau

at the very beginning uh to well-known

names like frebel and montessori

and john dewey and steiner

and i suppose really in a sentence it’s

about

making opportunities available to

children to experience nature

as a kind of a co-teacher and maybe

that’s something that we’ve lost

in our modern world

it’s a little bit i think um tarot said

something

about um as humans we sit within

nature’s embrace and maybe in our modern

world where

we’ve kind of um distorted that a little

bit

and seen ourselves as somehow above

or outside of nature and so i suppose

there’s a few key kind of principles

that are associated with forest school

and it’s

kind of modern um incarnation um

first of all access to woodland of some

sort and it doesn’t need to be an

ancient woodland

and because this kind of work i suppose

is very much about mindset as well

so it might be an unloved corner of a

local park or

school grounds or indeed it may be a

very beautiful ancient

woodland it can be in the middle of the

city or it might be in

a very rural area

and the most important thing i suppose

that idea of being in woodland

is about being in the woodland

and making opportunities through the

kind of um approaches that are

through the um opportunities that are

provided there

and to let the woodland teach you so one

of the key things about

forest school park pedagogy is that idea

of kind of moving

to the rhythms of nature using

the natural world as our clock

rather than a clock time

so that’s you know if we think of trees

long live it as they are

and that’s about the rhythms of nature

help us to slow down and

i think robert mcfarlane described it

recently

as in the context of the whole covet

thing

as nature being anchor points in a world

of chaos

so time slowing down and enabling us to

do that is a key part

of our school and if we want to do that

and learn how to do that well

we need to have repeated visits to the

forest so this is not about just going

to the forest once that’s brilliant

and but in the school context for

example we’re talking about taking the

children

once a week over the course of a term

ideally for over the course of the whole

year

for an extended period a minimum of two

to four m hours and that’s the only way

that we’re going to get

in tune with and get to know the seasons

and the rhythms

and help the rhythms of nature to inform

our being as humans and so a bit of

training is required for that obviously

it’s a specialized approach um and the

first school leader

is very much in the role um a

facilitator

and the elder of of the learning

community i suppose is another way

and to put it and the approach to

learning that’s fostered in forest

school is very much about

a holistic perspective so that longer

bit of time

gives you an opportunity to really get

stuck into the learning so it’s not

about subject

demarcations it’s about using the

resources

of nature in a playful way to help us

to deliver the curriculum if you’re

working in a primary school context

so for example i saw children making

rafts

using whittling sticks using iv to tie

them together and then taking them

to a stream to see what they float or

sink so you’re learning all your science

curriculum

you’re learning about the resources of

the forest you’re learning about your

own ability

to stick with processes

like that and to make a successful raft

for example and there’s risks associated

with it of course

and again it’s about um i suppose

seeing children as confident able

learners and us as the adults working

with them as able to foster that kind of

competence and that’s a really important

outcome of

any kind of nature connection activities

such as forest school

so it’s wonderful to have the

opportunity to work with organizations

like easy treasy

like crown who are focused on tree

planting

and because obviously far school can’t

happen if we don’t have the forests for

it to happen in

if you want to find out any more

information the irish forest school

association has a

website under that name and there’s lots

of material available

online thank you very much

you