Forest School

Our Nursery/Reception class teacher Mrs Laura Brown, is a qualified Forest Schools Leader at Level 3. This means the children are able to practise outdoor learning through carefully planned and risk assessed activities.

Forest Schools is a concept originally developed in Scandinavian countries. It is based on the idea that children are educated and encouraged to appreciate the natural world and inspire young people to have an interest and responsibility for nature conservation in later life.

There are many benefits to learning outdoors and in a study by the Forestry Commission it has been found the benefits are as follows:

• Increased self-esteem and self-confidence
• Improved social skills
• Development of language and communication skills
• Improved physical motor skills
• Improved motivation and concentration
• Increased knowledge and understanding of the environment

At Rushton we believe that Forest Schools enables our children to benefit from all the above, but most importantly, have fun in doing this.