2 May 2025

It has been a week of dry, sunny weather, so we were able to forgo the puddle suits today and just put on wellies when getting ready for Forest School. We gathered at our seating area to remind the children of our Forest School rules and explain today’s session. After laying out the boundary flags, the children took time to explore our site and look for any changes. It had been a few weeks since our last session due to the Easter holidays. The children returned on two blows of the whistle and shared the changes they had noticed with the group. They spotted blossoms growing on trees, dandelions, daisies and various flowers.
The children were then given free time. They always enjoy finishing our sessions with free play time, but we often feel they haven’t had quite long enough as they’re just ‘getting into’ an activity when it’s time to stop for lunch. Popular activities today were playing at the mud kitchens, balancing on logs and creating mini challenge courses, making daisy chains and, of course, digging. The digging area is looking quite impressive at the minute – over the last number of weeks the children have managed to create a network of trenches!
We were reminded of the importance of stepping back at times, and just allowing the children to play without interference. This reminder was reinforced when one child, when being questioned about what they were doing, politely responded, “We’re really busy. Can you stop distracting us?”! A valuable lesson for us to remember!
The boys and girls took care to ‘leave no trace’ at the end of the session. Everyone indicated their enjoyment of our time in the sunshine with a thumbs up and a big smile!