Our Forest School has been busy this week, collaboration will be an over-arching theme this term and the children really embraced the concept. Some of our classes become mixed as they move through school, it is therefore important that the children are given time to build and rekindle relationships and where better to do that than out in the woods. Initially the children will be put into teams so that they can learn to really work productively with others. We will focus on the arts of collaboration and negotiation, to ensure that everyone has a voice and feels valued. We will approach this with open minds giving the children the opportunity to interpret challenges in their own way. Through reflection we will encourage the children to share their work with others, articulating why they have tackled something in a certain way. This helps to transfer skills and spark the imagination, giving validation to each child.
Once the children were given their teams we went to the woods and they were asked too build something together, anything they wanted. For this first session the only requirement was that they should have come up with a team name by the end of the session. This gives the adults an opportunity to observe the dynamics and where focus may need to be given next session. They threw themselves into it and as you can see were very busy. We gave them regular pit-stops through “sticky feet” where we all come together just to check progress and help resolve any concerns, we try and encourage the class to do this with a little guidance from the adults. Whilst they are working the adults remain as “hands off” as is possible to give the children time to develop their confidence and sense of freedom.
