Forest School News

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 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.
Friday 7 July 2023 Kindling Collectors & Bread Bakers Fail to prepare; prepare to fail! Birch & Elder are very determined to suceed in Challenge 4 of their Fire Skills....to toast a s'more over a fire that they had created themselves from scratch.
Friday 30 June 2023 Bread & Butterflies: Woodchip & Wheelbarrows Birch group arrived in sunshine and having successfully lit the fire waited for the flames to be hot enough to bake their bread. Some of the children, helped make a gluten-free variety of the dough which allowed them to transfer some of the skills they had been using in their maths lessons involving weights and measures.
Friday 9 June 2023 Broadoak Welcomes Birch & Elder Group If excitement could fuel minibuses, Year 2 have come up with a solution to fossil fuels!
Friday 26 May 2023 Picnic, painting, whittling, weddings, target practice and building empires! Both sessions started with a group game of Wildflower Empire - just WHO WAS Cow's Parsley Would the Bugle blow their own trumpet and give themselves away Was Bluebell wearing Blue Could the Foxglove fox the opposition and wasn't everybody Cuckoo (flower)
Tuesday 23 May 2023 If You Go Down to the Woods in May... Forest School Buddy Day The sun shone as the buddies and their teddy bears came to the woods. They toasted s'mores, played, explored, laughed and enjoyed a picnic by the lake.
Monday 1 May 2023 Stump Central's Special Guests The Trail Camera didn't manage to pick up the Easter bunny (or the Broadoak Easter Bird for that matter)! However, it did capture these special guests who like to call Broadoak Woods their home.
Friday 21 April 2023 I see anemones Not sea anemones, a sea of anemones...wood anemones and Broadoak Wood is a aglow with their little delicate starry flowers with punctuation marks of celandine, violets, primroses and lady’s smock (cuckoo flower).
Friday 10 March 2023 Finessing our Fire Striking Skills & Orange Oven Brownies Due to the weather forecast, Dogwood Group were unable to have a fire this week. Unertubed, they set to work creating, mud-sliding, digging holes for foxes & working on their fire-striking skills...this will come in very useful for an activity in a few weeks. The forecast was a little more favourable for Whitebeam Group and so they put their culinary skills into action!
Friday 24 February 2023 Signs of spring & Blue tit & Bumblebee's Challenge Broadoak wood welcomed Dogwood & Whitebeam Group with a duo of chilly days. Luckily, the children have become well versed in keeping themselves active and such was their excitement in discovering their new setting that we didn't hear a peep about cold hands or toes.
Friday 10 February 2023 Conquering Challenges & Fond farewells It's been a terrific term. Beech & Oak group have grown in independence, resilience and their kindness and sense of fun have shone through even on the greyest of days.
Friday 3 February 2023 The Five Cs Curiosity, Courage, Compassion, Commitment &...Coconut Rice Pudding!! With a soundtrack of birdsong, the school values were in abundance over the two days.
Friday 27 January 2023 Fabulous fires with friends ANOTHER busy, rewarding and fun day in the woods. The grey gloom blanketing the sky could not deter from both groups’ determination to make the most out of their time in Broadoak Wood.
Friday 27 January 2023 Fabulous fires with friends ANOTHER busy, rewarding and fun day in the woods. The grey gloom blanketing the sky could not deter from both groups’ determination to make the most out of their time in Broadoak Wood.
Friday 20 January 2023 Frrrrrrosty fun! It was defintely chilly in the woods this week! However, nothing could freeze Oak & Beech Groups' joie de vivre! We read a beautiful passage written by Denys Watkins-Pitchford, a naturalist, affectionately know as 'BB'.
Friday 13 January 2023 Where to begin? Two days of action packed creativity, curious, commitment & compassion. Two days that embodied our school values. Two days that were muddy and marvellous.
Friday 6 January 2023 Exploring the woods Beech & Oak’s first encounter of Broadoak Wood was a wild & windy one.
Tuesday 13 December 2022 December at Broadoak Happy Christmas from the residents of Broadoak Woods.
Friday 9 December 2022 A Final Frosty Forest School The twinkling frost welcomed the groups to the woods. Broadoak looked magical. The children laid & lit the fire to heat water for hand washing & hot chocolate but would they complete the final Broadoak Challenge
Friday 2 December 2022 Broadoak Bake Off It was Bread Week in the woods.
Friday 25 November 2022 Rainy Days & Kelly Kettles Watch this week’s videos to see the following skills in action: teamwork, problem solving, kindness, resilience and success (plus many more besides)....and the squeakiest stick in the world!!
Friday 18 November 2022 Rainy Day Shelters & Kelly Kettle Collaboration Alder Group learnt how to secure a ridge line using a timber hitch & a tension knot. They then used their new skills to erect a shelter with a tarpaulin. They showed resilience & tenacity & many chose to eat their lunches in their new canvas homes.By Thursday, the rain had relented and Hornbeam Group took on the 'Broadoak Kelly Kettle Challenge' - the aim was to light a fire to boil their Kelly Kettle for a luxury hot chocolate (complete with squirty cream & mini marshmallows). They could then use the remaining fire to toast a marshmallow to sandwich between chocolate digestives to create a s'more.Many of the children had spent the previous week collecting and drying out kindling sticks & tinder including: reed mace, birch bark & eucalyptus bark. The children showed terrific teamwork and problem solving techniques.
Wednesday 16 November 2022 Broadoak's very own Tommy Brock The children helped us set up Bumblebee's trail cam at Forest School. Watch the video to see what action it captured this week....
Thursday 10 November 2022 Toffee Treats, A Woodland Gallery & Masses of Mud! A duo of beautiful autumnal days greeted Alder & Hornbeam groups to the wood.
Thursday 3 November 2022 See saws, trenches, mud slides & conkers Alder Group visited Broadoak Wood for the first time. After discussing the trees that grew there & familiarising themselves with the boundaries, the group went off to explore. They were fascinated by the 'trench' at the far end & a web of stories was woven about its history as they dug for treasure! Ahother group refashioned a fallen silver birch into a see-saw/balance beam/wobble board.

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