Micro-dosing forest school? Children tell us what they think

Abstract

Researchers from the School of Education and the Department of Social Work and Social Care have facilitated a number of forest school days with children from a local primary school on Kingston University grounds over a period of three years. These experiences give children an opportunity to engage in learning in the outdoors, which has clear cognitive and social developmental benefits. The forest school approach in England has been adapted from the Scandinavian pedagogy and retains the underpinning principles of child-led, enquiry-based and social learning. The fundamentals of forest school are to help children’s holistic development, enabling them to become confident, independent and creative participants. Our time with the children offered an experience or taster of what forest schools can offer. We listened and responded to children’s voices using appreciative inquiry methods. Forest schools and outdoor learning are very much part of the social pedagogy tradition, but we do not pretend to have delivered a fully formed forest school experience. Children responded in ways that we had not anticipated. While it was clear that they valued the natural world and were adamant that it should be protected, they brought their own frames of reference to this in novel and unexpected ways. We concluded that forest school experiences, even in micro-doses, enable children’s creativity and self-expression and have a contribution to make to future ecologies of learning and awareness of the natural environment and importance of protecting it. We also reflect on the relationship with the school, relative deprivation in the school community and the pre-existing environmental education and awareness in the classes.