Forest School

We are very fortunate at Buttercups to have a fantastic link with Whiteley Primary School where we hold our weekly Forest School sessions lead by a local Forest School provider, Fresh Air Learning. The forest school sessions take place on a set day every week within the school grounds, which provides a safe and enclosed environment for the children to explore.

Although we have a wonderful outdoor space at Buttercups, our Forest School session offers a unique educational experience using the outdoor woodland environment as a classroom. At Buttercups we believe it is essential that young children acquire frequent and regular exposure to the outdoor environment as it is proven to develop resilience, confidence, independence and creative learners, whilst also improving their health and well-being. The woodland area is an open-ended resource, which never fails to offer awe and wonder, it encourages motivation and creativity, with it’s huge and ever-changing supply of materials, as the sessions change.

During the session, the children are encouraged to investigate, explore, think critically, manage risks, make decisions, work with others and challenge themselves. An important part of the session is safety and risk management, therefore we have measures in place to do so, such as white markers to signal boundaries where the children can explore independently or with an adult, red markers to signal dangers, such as prickles and an owl sound that signals it is time to re-join the circle.

Throughout the session the children have the opportunity to take part in various child-led activities. The teachers may add learning prompts to the natural environment, however, the children are encouraged to be independent learners throughout the session, following their own interests. Some of the many activities they take part in are; bug hunts, climbing, den building, digging, mud sliding, puddle jumping, making fires, cooking, woodland craft and mud kitchen.