Forest school is an outdoor education delivery model in which students visit natural spaces to learn personal, social and technical skills.
It has been defined as "an inspirational process that offers children, young people and adults regular opportunities to achieve and develop confidence through hands-on learning in a woodland environment".
Topics are cross-curriculum (broad in subject) including the natural environment, for example the role of trees in society, the complex ecosystem supported by a wilderness, and recognition of specific plants and animals.
In the UK Model, schedules within forest schools vary, but one approach is to take students to woodlands once a week, with an initial six-week observation and assessment period, where a baseline is produced for each child in terms of areas of their holistic development, with particular emphasis on their social and emotional aspects of learning (SEAL).
The practitioner will provide opportunities for each child to develop in areas that have been identified as requiring interventions or support of any kind[3] The duration and frequency of visits influences the degree of outcome; more time spent in forest school brings greater benefits.
Forest school is currently taking place in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, USA, Malaysia, Switzerland, Spain, Israel, Ireland, Germany and United Kingdom.
With high adult to child ratios, children can safely experience activities that are often prohibited, such as climbing trees or lighting fires.
Children have the freedom to explore the area within the forest, this helps the child to learn to manage their own safety and move around comfortably.
[12] They may come from a non-academic family background, may have a short attention span, or may just not be comfortable with the organisation of a teacher standing in front of a group of pupils.
Children attending Forest kindergartens were in most cases arriving at school with strong social skills, the ability to work in groups effectively, high self-esteem, and confidence in their own capabilities.
[citation needed] In 1957, a Swedish man, Goesta Frohm, created the "Skogsmulle" concept to promote learning about nature, water, mountains and pollution.
The term nature deficit disorder, coined by Richard Louv in his 2005 book Last Child in the Woods, recognises the erosion of this by the urbanisation of human society.
Many organisations now offer training courses designed for the UK to enable practitioners to deliver forest school in their own settings and ensure children and teachers work within rich natural experiences.