About Forest School

Forest School is an essential part of the school curriculum and research shows that it provides a unique educational experience using the outdoor environment/forest as a classroom.

At Broad Oak we have four fully qualified level three Forest School practitioners and one level two practitioner. All children across school take part in Forest School as an integral part of their primary curriculum.

Through working in the outdoors children have the freedom, time and space to develop independence, confidence and self esteem. Their social and communication skills are developed through team activities, sharing tools and verbalisation of their many sensory experiences. The children learn to be self motivated and their concentration span increases as they become keen to participate in the many activities available to them - den building, tree climbing, bug hunting, bird watching, fire lighting, use of real tools and so much more.

These activities are also tailored to the development of physical skills (fine and gross motor) appropriate to the age, ability and interests of the children and also develop stamina and knowledge and understanding of the world around them.

Broad Oaks’ Forest School provision area is constantly developing to reflect the needs and interests of the children and the benefits automatically transfer into their classroom learning.

“ Pupils love spending time in their beautiful and well equipped outdoor areas…. They enjoy a range of opportunities that develop their academic, creative and sporting prowess. “ Ofsted 2022

Our Outdoor Learning Environment

Mrs Taylor is our green- fingered “Head Gardener” and each week she takes groups of children of all ages to help maintain and develop our Outdoor Learning Environment at Broad Oak.

The children get to experience a wide variety of activities such as planting and growing flowers, vegetables and fruit, cooking the harvested produce and creating wildlife habitats.

Mrs Taylor also takes groups to do cross-curricular work in our special outdoor spaces such as the Science Garden and our new mini forest area,  “The Den”.

The Den is currently being re-vamped by Mr Petersons and we hope to have some exciting new additions to this ouside learning area in the near future.