My introduction to running forest school, I think it fair to say, was a baptism of fire. In 2013, shortly after joining what was to become The Outdoors Group, I was asked to set up a second forest school at Exmouth. With a miniscule budget offset by a determined enthusiasm based upon a relatively newfound passion, we opened the site with a trickle of holiday clubs and a small but wonderful contingent of families that invested in our Toddler Groups.
I am forever thankful to the first few cohorts of toddler group attendees for their investment, encouragement and involvement. At a time when I had yet to cement a confidence and belief in my ability to match up to the standards and experience of my longer serving Forest School elders, the responsibility of facilitating beneficial and enjoyable sessions for a group of miniature people and their leaders terrified me. Through constantly researching, pondering and critically reflecting upon each session delivered, (alongside relentlessly seeking feedback from the patient parents who paid hard earned money for the pleasure of essentially becoming a social experiment ran by yours truly) I slowly found my feet and had a realisation.
Sessions are at their absolute best when the miniature people are the leaders.
The leadership style of a toddler is a curious thing; one of impulse, governed by a profound need to explore instant urges through the senses. It requires an enabler that can measure subtle nuance, curiosity and desire against need, recognising these can at once be the same. It requires someone who will protect and serve at all costs, whilst allowing for a broad range of experiences from which lessons can be learned and for development to thrive. These diverse experiences are essential for the cultivation of character, resilience, ambition, imagination, all of which are further developed upon as they transition through solo-play, to side-by-side activity, and enter group play and socially interactive activity with their peers. At this point there evolves a marvellous and exciting ecosystem of bustling potential. When opportunities are provided, children create their own agenda from which they can govern their own development, at a pace and direction determined independently by themselves.
Toddler groups are for the parents also. They’re a place where a community of grown-ups can assemble, to share our joys and woes with a collective that understands, supports, encourages and enriches. They are place for a brew around a fire, where we can connect with and benefit from the woodland in the same way our children do. Many parents have found themselves fulfilling their own needs through embarking upon activities provided to inspire their children, oftentimes whilst their children are off exploring their own agenda with a crew of their peers in a space they can navigate on their own terms, safely supervised from a distance. Liberation for all.
The woodland is an organic and ever shifting space, which projects itself into and onto those who visit. The experience of visiting the same woodland throughout the year is never the same twice. Each week, month and season brings with it a flavour of its own, within which new opportunities arise for those who seek them.
The spring and summer are awesome for Forest School. The first signs of spring ignite an awareness in those who attend, an awareness of the promise of new life as the woodland throws all it has into growth. As the summer gains momentum, a familiarity emerges in which the entire forest and those within it sit back and relax into it, sharing and appreciating the achievement of all that has grown, with a sense of comfort as the sun endeavours to shine down on all it has nurtured**
As autumn approaches and the falling leaves proclaim the inevitable continuation of a cycle, we enter a new realm of possibilities as the woodland introverts and withdraws towards the winter. Each year it reminds us that change is a requirement to embrace and appreciate. Sure, it’s a little colder and a change of clothes may need to be considered on the wettest of days, but as an experience, it offers no less it its rich tapestry of potential than the summer months, and on some days arguably more.
In reflection of my days delivering sessions across our whole provision, I loved and valued each of the seasons for very different reasons. Whereas the spring and summer seemed like a comfortable and cosy reward, the autumn and winter months brought about a heightened sense of the importance of community, and a need to explore. If provided with implied permission from an enthusiastic, adventurous, and encouraging fellowship of parents, the children rambled, played and engaged through the winter with the same wonder and vigour as they did throughout summer. Without prejudice, doubt or concern for the rain, cold or mud, only seeing the added joy, they continued soaking up a range of experiences that the spring and summer could never provide.
This is why we run our toddler groups through the winter, simply because it exists as a wonderful part of every year that passes, because we can, and because we should make it our duty to do so.
The sun doesn’t always reach a leaf in the shade, and the rain doesn’t always quench the thirst of the driest soil. We, as parents however, can provide all that is required for our saplings to flourish year round in the most formative season of their development, whilst also getting a little hit of what we need in the process.
**The Outdoors Group makes no promises that rain will not occur through these months.
Author: Nick Murphy, Head of Forest School & Training
Date: Monday 30th December 2024
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