At Palfrey we deliver Forest School sessions to Nursery and Reception children. We are very lucky to have a small forest area enabling our children to have real life experiences in the outdoors. We have recently had a new outdoor classroom built enabling us to take whole classes out at the same time having a group working inside and a group outdoors, offering the children experiences throughout the year. However every session is risk assessed before delivery and sessions are cancelled if the weather is too cold/windy or hot. The outdoor classroom will also be used throughout the year by Year 1and Year 2.

At Palfrey we provide all the equipment and outdoor clothing for the children. Which include all weather suits for both summer and winter, winter and summer hats, gloves and Wellington boots, so there is no need for you to buy anything extra for your child.

The Purpose and Aims of Forest School

• To provide children with experiences that encourages an appreciation, awareness and knowledge of the natural environment.
• To learn to respect and care for their own local environment.
• To abide by rules and set standards of behaviour, to work cooperatively in groups and to respect each other.
• Develop children’s self-esteem and self-confidence and communication skills through the setting of small achievable tasks.

We provide these opportunities through many different activities and tasks throughout the year. The children also have their snack time in the forest, having the opportunity to have milk, water and fruit. On the colder days the children have warm milk and chocolate drinks. In Nursery all the children will be going into the Forest Area and Outdoor Classroom every other Tuesday. In Reception each class will be timetable to use the outdoor area every Wednesday. Each session will be 2 hour sessions and will only consist of 15 children with 2 adults to supervise and 15 children inside, in the outdoor classroom.

Nursery – Tuesdays - the sessions will be every other week.

Reception – Wednesday -The sessions are taught in 4 week blocks, so each class will have 4 consecutive weeks.

All lessons are linked to the curriculum enabling the children to build on or enhance their knowledge.

Years 1 and 2 have access to the Forest School all year round. Where appropriate Lessons take place in the forest to enhance certain areas of the curriculum to offer real life experiences, especially in Science and Geography.