AD | Collaborative post
Learning doesn’t just take place in the classroom. The great outdoors provides many opportunities for children to learn about the world. Forest School makes use of natural resources to teach children about their surroundings and the processes of life. Here, a prep school in the Cotswolds explores the many benefits Forest School has for children.
Spending time outdoors helps with children’s mental health
Due to increased use of technology, children can end up spending a lot of time indoors. Forest School helps counteract this and foster good mental health in children in a number of ways. Firstly, giving children the space to roam and engage in active play provides vital exercise, which is a key factor in good mental health. Secondly, Forest School helps build children’s confidence as they learn to use the available resources to solve problems and take risks in a safe environment. It also helps with nurturing their imagination and creativity, which are other important aspects of good mental health.
Developing other skills
Forest School will help develop children’s fine motor skills, as well as soft skills such as teamwork and communication. It also assists with the development of emotional maturity as children learn to deal with challenging emotions such as fear and frustration, and work to overcome these challenges.
Following the National Curriculum
Nature will provide your child with ample opportunity to apply what they have learned in the classroom to real life situations. For example, they can practise Maths by looking for different shapes and measuring them, and they can cement literacy skills by using a variety of adjectives to describe the objects they find. Many natural resources can also be used for interesting Art or Science projects.
Fostering a love of nature
It is likely that technology will become an even bigger part of life as time goes on. Instilling in children a love of nature from an early age will help remind them that there is always somewhere they can go to escape the virtual world if they need a breather. This appreciation of the natural world might also encourage them to work to preserve its gifts later on in life.
As you can see, Forest School provides many benefits for children through a rich learning environment which nicely complements classroom-based education. It might also inspire a love of the great outdoors which will last a lifetime.