In the wooded area of the school, children at Oliver’s Battery have the opportunity to take part in Forest School sessions led by a trained Forest School Practitioner. Each class will spend one afternoon over a number of weeks in our Forest school area. At each session, a number of activities are on offer and children are free to choose what they would like to do. They can choose to either work alone developing independence or in groups learning valuable team building and social skills.

Activities include: den building, mud kitchen, craft, tree climbing, bug hunting, fire lighting. Children will have the opportunity to light a fire, cook a snack and end the session with the class sat around the fire circle to talk about what they have been doing and show the class anything they have made.

Interacting with an outdoor environment enables children to connect with nature and their surroundings. It allows them to be creative, experiment, explore and learn to take risks and challenge themselves which in turn builds self-confidence, resilience and self-esteem.

There is no formal learning objective to be achieved in a session but this does not mean they are not learning. It enables children to define their own learning and achievement through discovery, encouraging them to explore their own interests instead of having to complete specific tasks with a finite conclusion, objective or time scale.