Forest School
Seasons of Learning and Our Ethos:
The magical Forest School at Nursery Days is nestled in a private 5-acre orchard, just a short walk from our nursery. Here, learning comes alive in the great outdoors and by replacing walls with trees and worksheets with mud kitchens, we cultivate not just knowledge, but empathy, responsibility, and joy. Whether tending to animals, our resident donkeys Jasper and Blossom, hens and guinea pigs, storytelling by the firepit, or cooking over open flames, our children are encouraged to connect, explore, and grow- all while developing essential life skills in a way that is both natural and nurturing
What are the incredible benefits of our Forest School?
Regular outdoor play in our orchard promotes physical development, builds social confidence, and enhances problem-solving skills. Children become more resilient through supervised risky play like tree climbing, while also learning essential life lessons about risk assessment. Emotional wellbeing and social skills flourish as children collaborate on den building, learn about maths through counting eggs and measuring rainfall to storytelling with natural props and writing in the mud. With every bug hotel built and bird feeder filled, children develop a lasting sense of responsibility and connection to the natural world.
Using real tools gives children the opportunity to gain new practical skills. They learn the tools function and how to use them safely. Children can be creative and enjoy hands-on learning in nature.
This cross curricular activity is a really special one. Children take care in collecting treasures of the forest and make them into something they can wear with pride.
Using the ladder swing and slack lines enable children to develop core strength and strengthen the hands too. Both essential for handwriting.
Gathering nature’s tools- one stick, hundreds of possibilities. In a child’s hands, it becomes a wand, a fishing rod, or the start of a story only they can tell.