Forest School Principle 4

This principle emphasises the importance of Forest School contributing to the holistic development of all learners. In this context, holistic refers to the idea that people need to be understood as a whole, and that all parts of them are connected. Conventional schooling looks at one narrow part of humans: intellectual development, and removes this from all other parts. So, for example, children’s emotional and spiritual development are almost entirely excluded from the classroom, or if acknowledged, are usually only addressed superficially. A common acronym used to describe the categories of holistic development is SPICES. This stands for Social, Physical, Intellectual, Communication, Emotional and Spiritual. While these will be described individually below, in reality, many of these areas are occurring at once as they are all interconnected.

• Social

  As already discussed in Principle 3, building community is a vital part of Forest School and greatly contributes to learners’ social development. Being part of a community means understanding the social norms and conventions of that community. The Forest School community is often very different to the community children know in conventional schools. Children have more freedom to move, talk and express themselves, and they’re able to build relationships with adults and their peers, in a deeper and more organic way. There are more opportunities for children to understand the needs of others e.g. pushing someone else on the hammock, supporting others to climb down from a tree. Horseman and Signore (2021) explain that Forest School provides opportunities for participants to build skills in communication, negotiation, collaboration, resilience, finding creative solutions, reading social cues and empathy; all essential for healthy social development.

• Physical

  Forest School provides so much more opportunity for physical development than regular school. The very nature of being outside all the time with no tables and chairs, means the whole body is being used all the time. Forest School activities such as climbing trees, walking on a rope bridge and group games build gross motor skills, coordination, balance and stamina, while activities such as whittling, weaving and tying knots build fine motor skills, coordination and muscle memory.

Horseman & Signore (2021) explain that the wide range of movements on offer at Forest School – climbing, pushing, pulling, squeezing, lifting, stretching – plus the option to move our bodies in unusual ways (e.g. hanging upside down from a branch) strengthen the vestibular and proprioceptive systems, which give information about where our body is in space and how our body parts are moving, respectively. Being at Forest School helps everyone to meet their own body’s needs, offering particular support to those participants who have sensory processing issues. The option to be cocooned in a hammock while swinging gently back and forth, rolling down a hill, spinning round and round can resolve a person’s need to either calm and regulate their nervous system or feel heightened sensation.

• Intellectual

  Part of the rationale behind including leader-led guided activities is to develop learners’ intellectual development. Examples include introducing new skills such as tool use, knots, building fires. And children also construct their own knowledge when problem-solving and figuring out how to do new things such as building dens, making clay, and observing flora and fauna. Just being in nature supports creative thinking and mental flexibility, both important components of intellectual development (see principle 2: The Nature Principle and the discussion of ‘Theory of Loose Parts’  and The Theory of Compound Flexibility).

• Communication

  There are various ways that communication skills are developed during Forest School sessions. Children are always welcome to express their observations, feelings and needs at any point. Creating a safe space where everyone feels safe to communicate, even those children who share less frequently, is a vital component of Forest School.

Forest School leaders will always include games and activities that actively encourage collaboration and communication between the children. The time given to reflections at the end of the session or day is a great opportunity for children to freely communicate their feelings. 

• Emotional

  Compared to mainstream schooling, Forest School is incredibly supportive of learners’ emotional development. Daniel Goleman (1995) describes 5 domains of emotional intelligence:

o   Knowing one’s emotions or self-awareness – recognising a feeling as it happens

o   Managing emotions

o   Motivating oneself

o   Recognising emotions in others

o   Handling relationships

At Wildwood Nature School, we place a great emphasis on emotional development through our well-being curriculum, delivered daily. Click here to read more about Goleman’s emotional intelligence and some of the other thinkers who have inspired our approach to emotional development.

• Spiritual

  Forest School is the perfect setting to foster spiritual development because being in the natural world is the easiest way to feel awe and a sense of being connected to something bigger. Giesenberg (2007, quoted in Cree & Robb 2021, p60) defines spirituality as “an innate part of a person. It is an awareness or consciousness of the surrounding world, a sense of compassion and love towards this world and anything in it shown through wonder and through activities and relationship” with others. This sense of spirituality is innate, and just as with the body-mind connection, our connection to spirit is so easily knocked out of us through societal conventions and institutional restrictions. 

But Forest School, with its focus on a return to not only nature, but our more primal selves, allows for the maintenance or reconnection with our spiritual selves. Seeing flowers burst into life, watching flames flicker on a fire, or finding a dead animal all provide opportunities to be in awe, wonder and understand the flow and balance of the natural world. Nature also provides a calming environment that allows us to more deeply connect to ourselves and the world around us. 

The opportunity for learners to enter into a state of flow when totally engaged in an activity has also been described as a spiritual state. It’s the state we are trying to train ourselves to achieve when we practise mindfulness – the ability to focus so completely on the task at hand, to tune out all the other brain chatter, and to be completely present to the moment.

Holistic development which includes all these elements (the social, physical, intellectual, communication, emotional and spiritual) is our most natural way of learning. Middleton & Swift write “we believe that children are as equipped for learning as they are for breathing, and that they have the tools they need to do it. We inherit this ability from our primate ancestors. Long before curricula and schools, children learned by watching others and then making sense of what they saw through play” (2021, p37). This natural way of learning fosters resilient, independent, confident and creative learners who have high self-esteem and well-being.

Learners’ confidence grows as they are exposed to new experiences and opportunities. When this happens in a safe community, as at Forest School, they feel supported to try, fail, try again, and overcome challenges. As new skills are learned, and abilities are improved, confidence is built. 

Learners are encouraged to be independent in Forest School both during free play when they can choose their play and learning, but also when learning new skills. Tool use might be taught during a guided activity with the leader, but the goal would be for the learner to be able to use that tool whenever they needed independently. Since children at Wildwood Nature School will be learning Forest School skills over a long period of time, they’re encouraged to build their independence not only by selecting and using the tools they need, but also with setting up camp, starting fires independently and putting up shelters.

Resilience is built during Forest School through the focus on offering many new experiences and an encouragement of risk-taking. Learners will inevitably face frustrations, failures, falls, and many mistakes. Resilience is built through learners’ ability to face these disappointments and ‘fails’ and know that it doesn’t mean they’re a failure as a person, just that they need to try again to get better at that specific task. “Resilience is the product of agency: knowing that what you do can make a difference” (der Kolk 2015, p355). When learners realise they have the ability to change their mindset in the face of failure, they have developed resilience.

Creativity is fostered during Forest School through play, risk-taking and independence. “At Forest School, participants are encouraged to climb, explore and discover in their own ways, for their own reasons and in their own time. This gives participants the freedom to be as creative as they want, whilst the support and skills of the leader give them the safety net they need” (Middleton & Swift 2021, p38). Children get to use the woodland to support their games and creations during Forest School sessions. It’s important that the leader gives plenty of space for their own creations, such as through ground art and other crafts. 

The combination of an environment that fosters the holistic development of each learner and adults who support their needs and interests naturally contributes to learners’ well-being and self-esteem. Well-being is fostered through an ability to understand and manage emotions, to have strong relationships, and to be able to enjoy life. Self-esteem grows with a sense of “grounded confidence” (Brown 2021, p196), purpose, feeling valued and not letting “failures, mistakes and imperfections decrease our self-worth” (Ibid, p196). Forest School powerfully supports all of these elements.

References:

Cree, J. & Robb, M (2021) The Essential Guide to Forest School and Nature Pedagogy. Oxon: Routledge.

der Kolk, V. B., MD. (2015). The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. Penguin Books.

Forest School Association, b. (n.d.), What is Forest School? https://forestschoolassociation.org/what-is-forest-school/ [accessed 09.12.2021]

Goleman, D. (1995) Emotional Intelligence: Why it can matter more than IQ. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.

Horseman, L. & Signore, F. F. (2021). ‘Benefits of Forest School’ in Harding, N. Growing a Forest School from the roots up! Carlisle: Forest School Association, p54-63.

Middleton, C. & Swift, E. (2021) ‘A deeper dive into the Forest School Principles’ in Harding, N. Growing a Forest School from the roots up! Carlisle: Forest School Association, p26-52.