Forest School
Our wonderful Forest School site for our Infant and Junior School children backs onto our picturesque lake where there is an abundance of wildlife. Activities such as cooking, den building, campfires and using a variety of tools offers children new experiences, opportunities to take risks, build resilience and communicate with each other.
Forest School is a child-centred inspirational learning process. The program supports play, exploration and risk taking. It develops confidence and self-esteem through child-led, hands-on experiences in a natural setting. It also helps and facilitates more than knowledge-gathering: helping children develop socially, emotionally, spiritually, physically and intellectually. It creates a safe, non-judgemental nurturing environment for children to try new things and take risks.
Forest School inspires a deep and meaningful connection to the world, which is imperative for wellbeing. The approach to risk means that children constantly expand on their abilities by building self-belief and resilience. The belief is that risk is not just about the potential for physical harm, but it is more holistic…there are risks in everything we do, and we grow by overcoming them. In a nutshell, Forest School helps children to become, healthy, resilient, creative and independent learners.
At LVS Ascot, our Forest School Leader is also an experienced primary school teacher. The children from Reception all the way to Year 6, learn about minibeasts, trees and plants. They use a range of tools including bow-saws and hand drills. Hammers are also used to create, amongst other things, Hapa-Zome pictures (a Japanese method of printing on cloth with natural pigments).
Campfires are a regular occurrence in the forest. The children learn the importance of fire safety and taking managed risks. They learn to build fires and start them using fire-strikers, allowing them to develop important bush craft and survival skills. Cooking is also a staple part of the session. The children make popcorn and s’mores, toast pancakes and crumpets and fry sausages as well as drink hot chocolate heated up in the Kelly Kettle!
The children participate in national initiatives such as The Great British Bird watch and Hedgehog Awareness Week, ensuring that they are aware of the wider world, not just leafy Berkshire!
“We ‘stumbled’ across LVS as a school and it has been the best thing I could have wished for, for both of my kids”
Nickie Locke, Parent
