Forest School Wins Gold!

Forest School wins gold!

Forest School has recently been awarded a Gold Green Tree Schools award by the Woodland Trust for getting involved and incorporating green activities throughout the curriculum within the Preparatory School.

The Green Tree Schools initiative, which has seen more than 12,000 schools sign up since it was launched in 2008, offers the opportunity to bring the great outdoors, wildlife and green issues into the classroom.

Since September, pupils and teacher’s in our Preparatory School have been working towards becoming a Gold Green Tree School by completing exciting activities and challenges set by the Woodland Trust.

Our Reception classes have been visiting the woodlands regularly as part of their ‘Little Foresters’ sessions led by Mrs Arnold, who is completing her Level 3 Forest Schools qualification. They spend an afternoon outside every week and take part in den building, team games, natural arts and crafts and outdoor imaginative play.

In Michaelmas term, a group of our Pre-Prep children became ‘School Woodland Ambassadors’ by exploring, investigating and learning about the different trees and wildlife located in our woodland learning area, Little Acorns. They created presentations on what they had learnt and shared their knowledge with their peers during a Pre-Prep assembly.

The Year 5 boys took part in the ‘Tree Champion Challenge’ that started out with an exploration of the local woodlands, and a discussion of the importance of trees to different people in society. They thought of the wildlife that might need protecting in the woodlands and used their imaginations to create ‘Tree Champions’ who advocate and protect these animals.

In the Trinity term, the Year 6 pupils extended their knowledge of Shakespeare to explore the taxonomy of the woodlands, as well as how the natural world inspired ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. Afterwards, they turned the ‘Little Acorns’ area into an outdoor theater and created and performed short drama pieces to their peers.

Over the next academic year, the Preparatory School will be aiming for Platinum! There are plans for two big projects that will involve all the pupils from Reception through to Year 6, focusing on different perspectives of the woodlands around us.