Forest School News

Friday 28 June 2024 Mastering the Marshmallow Melter Challenge Practice, patience and perseverance paid off! This week, Holly & Chestnut Group took on making their own fires for toasting marshmallows.
Monday 24 June 2024 Deerly Beloved.... Look who popped into the woods! By the clock on the trail cam it looks like this deer likes to pop in at around 9pm and 7am whereas the badger came at 1am. As for the fox, he was hoping to catch the squirrel who has just scurried off stage left!
Friday 21 June 2024 Midsummer - Flowers & Fires and crocheted creativity This week, Chestnut Group took an alternative route home from Forest School and Holly Group took an alternative route to Forest School this week which allowed us to see a whole host of wildflowers that have grown up around an area of wasteland. There was teasel, mallow, giant viper's bugloss, sainfoin, mayweed and a mound of ruby red poppies to name just a few! We saw some young great tits pecking at insects on the security fence. On the edge of the field there were scarlet pimpernels underfoot and thistles covered in aphids which were providing a tasty breakfast for some seven-spotted ladybirds. We also saw a huge dragonfly helicopter over our heads. An exciting change of scene!!
Friday 14 June 2024 Elderflower Forage & Feast Today we dived into the wonderful world of elderflower! We looked, we sniffed, we touched and we tasted Rosehip's delicious elderflower cordial and then sampled freshly fried elderflower fritters made over the campfire! Everybody agreed that elderflower is AWESOME!
Friday 7 June 2024 Dragonflies, Daisies & Dog Roses The wait between Year 1 & Year 2s Forest School sessions is the longest in their entire journey through our school. It is fair to say that Holly & Chestnut Group were bubbling with excitement as they boarded the minibus.
Friday 29 March 2024 A Visit from the Broad Oak Rainbow Bird & Thank You Moley The Rainbow Bird comes but once a year to Broad Oak and if you are lucky you may see a flash of its technicolour plumage or come across one of its shiny colourful eggs...Birch Group & Elder Group certainly were lucky enough to do just that!
Friday 22 March 2024 Cooking up a Sting! It was nettle week this week. We learnt about the fabulous powers and uses over the ages of the mighty nettle. Then we set of 'a foraging'!
Friday 15 March 2024 Mud, Mud Glorious Mud Ooze, squelch, gloop - there was some great onomatopoeic language in the woods today and A LOT of mud! Luckily - the children saw this as a VERY good thing!
Friday 8 March 2024 Orange Ovens Brilliant baking and super scooping this week! The children enjoyed the fruit (juice) of their labours having created oven and baked chocolate orange brownies in the embers of the campfire.
Friday 1 March 2024 Highways & Byways & Fiery Fungi The children edged the footpaths today to help ensure that people didn't venture over into the fast growing expanse of bluebells that they want to protect from being squashed. They also made good use of the ID books to research the fabulous fungi that they found. They are loving explroing the woods and having more freedom. During the afternoons we did some fire striking and Birch Group had a look at how King Alfred's Cake get's the nickname Tinder Fungus.
Friday 23 February 2024 Birch & Elder - Year 3 Signs of Spring Birch were able to explore the bigger boundaries of Broad Oak available to them now they have reached the dizzy heights of year two. They also were set the challenge of looking for signs of spring as they needed to work out which areas they should steer clear of in order to let the beautiful bluebells to grow. Due to high winds Elder Group had to stay at school for their session and even though it POURED with rain they did not let the weather dampen their spirits. We visited the Glebe field looking for signs of spring and differentiating between wild and
Friday 9 February 2024 Life's a Stream! Our Final Week with the Dazzling Dogwoods and Wonderful Whitebeams and what a happy week it was! There was pancakes, shows, rain, boat races and a whole lot of laughter and soggy wellies! Take a look at the photos to get a sneak peak...
Thursday 8 February 2024 A Look Back at Dogwood & Whitebeam's Year 4 in Three Parts At long last, I have overcome all technical issues and I can share the trio of videos with you. Thank you Fox, Wren, Rosehip & Nuthatch for your help with the filming.
Friday 2 February 2024 Setting sail and Whisking up a treat! Dogwood Group was halved in size this week as half of the troupe headed up to the O2 to sing with the Young Voices. The remaining group had lots of fun making Campfire Cones, taking their boats for a test run and finding moss, lichen and deer prints! Whitebeam Group were the first group to sample pancakes made by out Woodland Whiskers....to say they were impressed is an understatement!!
Friday 26 January 2024 Boat Builders & Lumberjacks The woods were a hive of industry as children took on a variety of challenges. There were shisks to be sanded, firewood to be split and on top of this Broad Oak had transformed into a boatyard as children took on the challenge to build a boat to set sail down the stream. See the gallery to find out more
Friday 19 January 2024 Coconut Ice, Whisk Benders & Sun Catchers The sub zero temperature on the mercury had covered every surface with a feathery, crystal-white shimmering hoar frost. As we crunched the icy puddles our warm breath made hot puffy clouds in the sky.
Friday 19 January 2024 Very Ice & Taking Whisks The hoar frost created feathery whiskers across every grass blade and fallen leaf. We had great fun stomping through the frozen puddles and listening to the crackle and crunch of the ice. We spotted the distinctive deer prints and watched as meadow pippits
Friday 12 January 2024 First Snowy Diary Entries Following Monday’s snow flurries Broad Oak and the sub zero temperatures Broad Oak had blankets of snow on the fallen logs and an array of mystery footprints for the children to discover and note down in their new nature diaries.
Friday 5 January 2024 Noticing, Wondering, Making Connections As mud oozed up around their boots, Dogwood & Whitebeam Groups headed to Forest School set with a challenge…..to discover a Woodland Welcome that invited them to Broad Oak and made them notice nature. Noticing nature will help us with the entries for our new nature diaries. We looked at nature diaries that had been published over the years and discussed how writing a nature diary can help your brain to learn more AND help you feel happier….what’s not to love?
Friday 8 December 2023 Beech & Oak - Marvellous Memories A look back on a term of fabulous fun, self-driven projects, teamwork, firey challenges, problem solving, creativity, conkers, some yummy food and LOTS of mud!!
Friday 1 December 2023 Fabulous Foraged Food & a Campfire Lunch Following the events of last week, it was wonderful to be back in the woods and remind ourselves that everything was a-OK. We had time to talk and reflect and were all in agreement that through supporting one another we could all be known as Team Hero!
Friday 24 November 2023 The Great Year 5 Kelly Kettle Challenge Fire Striking and the wide variety of skills that it can help develop is a huge highlight for many children at Forest School and in Year 5 they get the chance to bring all their knowledge and understanding of fire siting, striking and safety together to boil water on a Kelly Kettle and make their own hot chocolate (with all the trimmings. It would take patience, perseverance and teamwork but the smiles on their faces bore testament to the pride they gained from having to work hard to achieve something.
Friday 17 November 2023 Fun, Fungi & a Story Tree A week of fun & fungi. We discovered sooo many different varieties. The distinctive 'Fly Agaric', the jolly titled 'Chip Cherry', the spooky 'Dead Man's Finger's' and the aptly named 'Canine Stinkhorn' to name just a few. The groups were also keen to venture into Badger City and found a wonderful sweet chestnut stool that they could fit a good sized group inside- they decided this was a good place to tell stories...and so became the story tree. We also looked at quick release tension knots to help us with our shelters. Take a look at this week's gallery to discover more A week of fun & fungi
Friday 10 November 2023 Conquering Conkers! Beech Group learnt two lessons early on Wednesday morning. What the Beaufort scale is & to deal with disappointment! I am pleased to say that they decided to deal with the news that they would not be able to go to the woods due to the meteorologists’ forecast of high winds with maturity and a refreshingly positive outlook.
Friday 27 October 2023 Brimstone & Orange Tips Forest School in Year 1 Brimstones & Orange Tips had a wonderful term of sessions. They learnt what it means to keep our 3 Forest School promises To look after themselves, each other and the wonderful woods. Each week they reflected on how they had embodied the school values through their play and learning and were always brimming with ideas. We were so proud of how they flourished and developed in independence and resilience. This video gives you a sneak peak into our very happy term. Make yourself a cuppa & sit back & enjoy!
Friday 13 October 2023 Bread Baking & Blackberry Jam Wren had been busy over the weekend, and the children were thrilled to arrive and see their Hapa Zome bunting hanging from the new kitchen roof - they were keen to identify the flag they had contributed & identify the different types of leaves. Having brought in their lovely blackberries, the Brimstones & Orange Tips set to work peeling the apples, pouring in the sugar and then squeezing in the juice of a lemon then the ingredients were put in the pan & heated over the campfire. It was fun to watch it begin to bubble and become a sweet, gooey, fruity goup ready for putting in jars so we could all take a pot home to share with our families. The next step was to get to work baking our bread - patience and resilience were the order of the day! And all the while our new resident Robin watched over us eyeing up any dropped crumbs that he might make a merry meal of later!!!
Friday 6 October 2023 Barrows of Fun Amongst the weekly mix of child-led mix of fun and games there was bark writing, fungi finding, happy families, nest building, running a horse stables, bug house building, log balancing and plenty of adventure.
Friday 29 September 2023 Hapa Zome Bunting & Pancakes with a Hedgerow Twist This week the Orange Tips learnt the art of Hapa Zome (Japanese for leaf dye) in order to create some bunting for our very smart new kitchen roof made by Mr Russell and his sons. It took concentration, resilience and control and resulted in a good dose of glee!! It also promoted a lot of interest in the shapes and names of the trees and plants around Broad Oak Wood as the children hunted for the 'BEST' Hapa Zome leaf. Meanwhile Brimstones got to mix up their own pancake ingredients. Before watching them being cooked over the campfire and then drizzling them in Rosehip's homemade Rosehip Syrup packed with Vitamin C....so good many had to lick the bowl clean and almost everybody came back for seconds!!!
Thursday 14 September 2023 Busy Little Butterflies are back in Broad Oak The meadows had been mown and Brimstone group delighted as two row deer darting out of the wood on our arrival.
Friday 14 July 2023 Challenge S'more The children have been working so hard towards their final fire skills Challenge of Key Stage 1.

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