What is Forest School? 

“An inspirational process that offers children, young people and adults regular opportunities to achieve, develop confidence and self-esteem through hands-on learning experiences in a local woodland environment.” Forest School Association 

Forest School began in Scandinavia and arrived in the UK in 1993. It has grown from strength to strength and is a long-term venture that supports play, exploration and supported risk taking. Forest School develops children’s confidence and self-esteem through child-centred, hands-on experiences.  

Our well-established Forest School at Bridgewater School promotes holistic development for all the children, fostering resilient, confident, independent and creative learners. Children participate in activities and games designed to build qualities as well as skills through an understanding of their local natural environment.  Playing and exploring at Forest School facilitates more than knowledge gathering, it helps learners develop socially, emotionally, spiritually, physically and intellectually. 

We work in five areas: woodcraft, shelter, fire, nature and rope. Every session has an activity that supports and extends children’s social development, self-awareness and self-regulation, as well as learning new skills.

We encourage physical and emotional development through outdoor play. They learn how to assess and handle risks and most importantly to use their own initiative to solve problems and cooperate with others. 

We are very lucky to have our own school woodland - working outside in all weathers - together rain or shine! 

We are proud holders of the Woodland Trust Platinum Award. 

Mrs Marsh who works with a very motivated and qualified team leads Forest School, which includes Mrs Berry, Mrs Ria and Mrs Blackie who are all qualified Forest School practitioners that continuously maintain and develop their professional practice.

We work outside in all weathers and across seasons. We routinely use a fire to make a hot drink and enjoy cooking. Around pancake day we used the fire to make blueberry drop pancakes. Delicious! The heat of the fire made the blueberries go all ‘jammy’.

We used leaves and flowers to decorate real eggs for Easter. We had to make a little wrap using a pop-sock to hold the leaves and petals next to the egg shell. We bubbled the eggs in a pan on the fire using red cabbage to make a natural dye. We were really pleased with the results too.