Intent
At St Wilfrid’s our Woodland school curriculum aims to encourage children to initiate, investigate and maintain curiosity in the world around them through hands-on learning experiences in a woodland or natural environment with trees. We intend to give children opportunities to work collaboratively developing personal and social skills, increasing confidence in decision-making and evaluating risk alongside raising their self-esteem, enabling them to solve practical problems and challenges. Children are encouraged to direct their own learning pursuing knowledge that interests them, extending initial ideas independently, through stimulating play or inspiration from the Woodland school leader. This provides children will opportunities to develop practical skills, develop their language and communication skills and embed both knowledge and skills from across other areas of the curriculum. We aim to ignite the natural curiosity present in children and to enable them to open their eyes and experience the wonders of the world around them and the connections between humans, wildlife and the earth.
Implementation
Our curriculum is specifically designed to provide children with an insight into the ethos and foundations of Forest Schools building on children’s positive attitudes to learning, offering them opportunities to take risks, make choices and initiate learning for themselves encouraging independence and opportunities to explore their own interests alongside planned activities. The scheme of work provides a progress framework of knowledge, skills and understanding support and embedding the Early Years Foundation framework and National Curriculum.
Children are encouraged to change for each session choosing appropriate clothing for the weather, initially with guidance but then as part of developing independence and risk taking. Through the sequence of lessons, children are provided with a range of opportunities to embed the school values and Catholic Social teaching and provide them with opportunities to implement these.
Each session will incorporate five key elements:
The implementation builds on children’s positive attitudes to learning, offering them chances to learn a range of outdoor and life skills beyond the classroom, which they can utilise beyond school life. Children are be encouraged to explore, take risks and tackle new experiences head on learning though practical and accessible challenges, which build upon skills and knowledge. Children will be observed in the natural environment, scaffolded to try new things and challenged to extend their learning to showcase a greater level of understanding and engagement both within planned activities and independent choice.
Woodland school builds on a child’s positive attitude to learning, offering them the opportunities to take risks, make choices and initiate learning for themselves. The Forest School learning environment provides opportunities for children to develop self-esteem, self-confidence, to form positive relationships with others, to develop a growing awareness of their emotional needs and the needs of others, and to learn to cooperate and work with their peers and adults.
Impact
Children will grow in confidence as a result of the freedom, time and space they are given in their learning; demonstrating independence at their own individual rate. With support the children will begin to understand, and manage their own risk and safety enabling them become more independent and show them that life comes with not only risk but also rewards. Our children will be more aware of their own limits and show more resilience to push through them, recognising that this helps us grow.
Children will be more adept at problem solving, logical thinking, self-reflection and evaluation. They will show kindness and understanding towards each other with strengthened bonds increased social skills and an improved ability to work together. Knowledge and skills will be built upon and children will develop language and vocabulary to express and share their learning. Children will develop an interest in the great outdoors and respect for the natural world around them understanding some of the links between humans, wildlife and the earth, showing a sense of awe and wonder about the natural world.
Our curriculum impact will be monitored through the images and videos of the children’s practical learning, observing the children within sessions and talking to the children about their learning. The outcome for each session will be recorded in a woodland school book which showcase the core knowledge and skills children have developed.