Forest School for All

by Sara Knight (Editor)

Overview

How can you use the Forest School ethos for the benefit of all your students?

Forest School is now being used with a wide range of different age groups and in many different settings, and it can address issues such as obesity, public health and social wellbeing. This book includes case studies that will help to demonstrate how to run Forest School sessions with:

- children in older primary classes

- secondary schools

- children in urban environments

- special schools

- young people in residential homes

- school refusers

- young people who have been excluded

- adults with autistic-spectrum disorders

- family centres.

Anyone interested in how to implement the Forest School ethos in their learning environment will be enthused and inspired by this book.

Sara Knight is an experienced early years educator and Senior Lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University. She is a trained Forest School practitioner and author of Forest Schools and Outdoor Learning in the Early Years and Risk and Adventure in Early Years Outdoor Play (both published by SAGE).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780857020727
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	02/02/2012
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.60(w) x 9.40(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Sara Knight is a teacher and Forest School leader. She contributes to the development Forest School in the UK, publishing academic papers and books on the subject, and is a keynote speaker at conferences worldwide. Since retiring as a University lecturer she continues to play in the woods and write about it.

Sara Knight will be discussing key ideas from Forest School in Practice in the SAGE Early Years Masterclass, a free professional development experience hosted by Kathy Brodie. To sign up, or for more information, click here.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements viii

List of Figures ix

About the Editor and Contributors xi

Introduction: Setting the Scene 1

Section 1 Nursery and Primary School Based Forest School 11

1 Breaking Through Concrete - The Emergence of Forest School in London Katherine Milchem 13

2 Forest School - A Whole School Approach Clare Lamb 28

3 Developing Practice and Delivering a Forest School Programme for Children Identified as Gifted and Talented Tracey Maciver 41

4 Using Forest School to Make the Transition to High School Alasdair Horning 54

Section 2 Forest School, Social and Emotional Needs 65

5 Supporting Emotional and Social Development in Forest School with Adolescents Clare Neenan Sara Knight 67

6 Forest School - An Alternative Curriculum Ross Evans 80

7 Learning from Working with Disaffected Year 10 Pupils Rich Sylvester 94

8 Maintaining the Forest School Ethos While Working with 14-19-Year-Old Boys Jon Cree 106

Section 3 Forest School and Young People with Particular Needs 121

9 Removing Barriers: Getting Children with Physical Challenges into the Woods Fiona Hopkins 123

10 Seals in the Woods Xavier Eloquin Tina Hutchinson 137

11 Forest School and Looked After Children Rebecca Wicks 153

12 Autism, Art and Nature as Relational Aspects of Forest School Kevin Burrows 162

Section 4 Using Forest School Strategically 179

13 Addicts and Forest School Mike Brady 181

14 Forest School for Families Lucy Partridge Wendy Taylor 194

15 Forest School County-Wide - A Norfolk Perspective Louise Ambrose 209

16 Edinburgh's Forest School Partnership Project - 'Building Local Capacity' Jenny Waiters 221

Conclusion 237

Appendix: Links and Lists - How to Find People, Training and Resources Relevant to this Book 244

Index 250

Editorial Reviews

"Knight offers a needed addition to scholarship on outdoor and hybrid environmental curriculum, with a keen modeling accommodation for diverse and special-needs learners. The book's strength is that it provides a methodology for implementation of outdoor experiential education curriculum and assessment in independent and charter schools."

CHOICE Magazine - L.H. Taylor Jr.

"Knight offers a needed addition to scholarship on outdoor and hybrid environmental curriculum, with a keen modeling accommodation for diverse and special-needs learners. The book's strength is that it provides a methodology for implementation of outdoor experiential education curriculum and assessment in independent and charter schools. "— L.H. Taylor Jr.

Choice Magazine

'Despite the variety of contributors and their projects, the editor has achieved a consistence of tone and style in the writing, which is engaging and accessible'
-Valerie Huggins, Early Years

'[The editors] lead a mystery tour of learning in nature and nature in learning. I particularly delighted in the account of the practicalities of urban comprehensive pupils weaving together saplings along a trail as part of their 'Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning'. This book turns a dry Faculty of Public Health report green' -
Times Higher Education

'Yet again Sara has managed to capture the essence of Forest School. The varied case studies explore how the Forest School ethos applies across a wide range of clients, and demonstrate precisely why so many talented and enlightened practitioners are using Forest School with learners, especially those who don't fit in with the constraints of mainstream education' -
Susannah Podmore, FEI Coordinator, Forestry Commission England

From the Publisher