Forest School Leader: Mr. Saull-Hunt
Forest School Assistant: Mrs Sinden

At Sedlescombe Church of England Primary School we are very lucky to be surrounded by beautiful woodland and areas of outstanding natural beauty and making use of this to support children’s learning and emotional development is part of our curriculum and ethos. As a result we give every child the opportunity to experience Forest School during their time at Sedlescombe Church of England Primary School.

The woodlands offer a unique teaching and learning environment that is constantly changing and captures children’s curiosity, stimulates their senses and nurtures their well-being.

We believe in the philosophy that underpins the Forest School movement where every child is encouraged and inspired to develop their personal, social and emotional skills through participation in tasks and activities which are motivating and achievable. These can be set-up as child led activities, group work or 1:1 co-adventurer tasks all of which include hands on experiences and outcomes discovered by the child.

At Forest School all participants are viewed as:

• equal, unique and valuable
• competent to explore & discover
• entitled to experience appropriate risk and challenge
• entitled to choose, and to initiate and drive their own learning and development
• entitled to experience regular success
• entitled to develop positive relationships with themselves and other people
• entitled to develop a strong, positive relationship with their natural world

Through a set of regular Forest School sessions, we aim to build emotional intelligence, self-awareness, an ability to recognise and manage emotions, develop resilience and skills of empathy. It is hoped that these skills will be transferred to the classroom and support children in all areas of their learning and emotional development.

Starting this year every child in Year 1 and Year 5 will have a 6 to 8 week Forest School experience. In Year 1 the children will have a half-day session at the school site for the majority of sessions with the possibility of attending our off-site Forest School site towards the end of the experience depending on the skills and behaviour shown by the children.

In Year 5 the children will have all of their sessions at our off-site location developing further skills including tool use.