Forest School
Forest School at New Moston
Ethos
The Forest School ethos is based on a fundamental respect for children and their ability to instigate, investigate and maintain curiosity in the world around them. It believes in children's rights to:
Vision and Values
Forest School is an approach to education that makes use of the outdoor environment as a unique tool to support children with their learning and development.
Forest School provides varied opportunities for children to access a supportive curriculum that can help children build positive values and attitudes about themselves; about learning; and about the environment in which they live. Children are challenged through a diverse range of tasks to build confidence; skills; and independence: the children are given time to explore their thoughts; feelings and relationships. This time allows for reflection and allows children to develop inter and intrapersonal skills.
The Forest School team at New Moston Primary School aims to provide:
inspiration to be curious, interested and creative
opportunities to be challenged and learn to assess their own risks
the chance to develop imagination and resourcefulness
the freedom to explore a variety of experiences through feeling, behaving and interacting with others
the physical, mental and emotional space to be active and interactive
Willow Class Forest School 🌳
This week in Forest School we have followed the children’s interest in making a gloop factory and created lots of different gloop puddles before having working on our throwing skills by throwing the gloop at the target on the school fence! We found that the thicker the mud the easier it was to throw, to make it trickier we stood further back and took aim! 🎯
We also had the opportunity to explore in the trees; make bird feeders, finish our homes for the mini-beasts; climb trees weave the willow dome.
To celebrate World Bee Day on the 20th May, the afternoon session created a piece of blow away art representing a bee. 🐝
We had a mix of sunshine and showers today at Forest School. ☀️🌧️
The children enjoyed playing ‘1,2,3 where are you?’ in the trees; made clay faces and bird feeders; as well as extending their minibeast houses from last week and making a gloop factory. Lots of muddy hands and happy faces. 🖐️ 😊
Outdoor Training for EYFS 🍃
New Moston Primary School is delighted to announce that we have been awarded a Local School Nature Grant, thanks to players of the People's Postcode Lottery.
Our pupils will be benefitting from Log Seats in the Early Years playground, a Wildlife Kit to be used in Gardening Club and a Woodland Activity Kit which will be used at Forest School.
In addition to this our Early Years Team received training to increase the outdoor provision available to our pupils.
The EYFS staff used natural resources to make fly away art as part of their training
Pupils played an important role in applying for the grant and selected equipment that would benefit their peers.
The project is run by Learning Through Landscapes and is funded by People's Postcode Lottery, Postcode Neighbourhood Trust, Postcode Places Trust, Postcode Society Trust, Postcode Local Trust or Postcode Community Trust.
Fiona Macnab from Learning Through Landscapes
Elm Class Forest School
Our first Forest School experience included looking for hazards and an introduction of the Forest School rules; before exploring the trees and challenging ourselves to manage risk with tree climbing. We also hunted for bugs, made bird feeders and poppies for Remembrance Day.
The second Forest School session was all about teamwork, Elm Class were set challenges including ‘Human Spaghetti’ and had to work together in teams to solve problems and work efficiently. We also made Pudsey and Blush out of leaves; planted trees to create a boundary around our Forest School area and the children created their own fire pit and fire circle complete with a marshmallow roasting station!
Pine Class Forest School
Our first Forest School session with Pine Class was certainly a wet one! We introduced the rules to some children and revisited them for others; we identified hazards in the environment before exploring. Although our main focus was rules, we also began decorating our birds nest and created bird feeders; began weaving the willow dome which has sprouted lots over the summer; worked as a team to create a wonderful den; and explored the trees and puddles!
The second Forest School session was all about teamwork, Pine Class were set challenges in teams and had to work together to solve problems and work efficiently. Human Spaghetti was a challenge for our morning groups and transporting a ball without using hands or moving feet proved tricky for the afternoon children. It was lovely to hear the encouragement and support the children had for their own team, and a special shout out to Braydon, who was a fantastic team player and supported both his own and the opposing team!
For our third Forest School session, we gave the children chance to explore independently; it was lovely to take a step back and listen to them support one another and interact positively with their peers away from the classroom; we had children creating an Autumn Rainbow using fallen leaves in a range of colours; mud exploration and managing risks through tree climbing and den-building. We look forward to welcoming Pine Class to our final Forest School session of the year later this month.
