The 6 Forest Principles of Forest School and The Forest School Framework
Embracing the 6 core principles of Forest School was the fundamental consideration when The Forest School Framework was built. It is rooted deeply with the ethos and principles of Forest School to meet the wide range of needs of all learners, from EYFS to KS3. So, how exactly does The Forest School Framework stay true to child-centred learning and offer a way to meaningful observe engagement, track development and celebrate learning ?
What are the 6 Core Principles of Forest School?
The 6 core principles are the foundation of any Forest School. All of these must be in place in order to deliver Forest School, so it is important to understand what these are and how they form the unique Forest School ethos. Each of these principles has agreed-upon criteria, created by the Forest School community in 2012. The Forest School Association (FSA) in the professional organisation who aim to regulate good practice and quality assure provision and training in the UK.
How does the Wild Warrior Award support the 6 core principles of Forest School?
The Long-term Principle:
'Forest School takes place over regular sessions with the key process of cycle planning, observation, adaptation and review which links each session together. The structure is based on the collaborative work between leaders and participants and should clearly demonstrate progression of learning.'
The Badge Journals give leaders and participants an opportunity to plan together in a reflective manner session to session and used to capture the learning journey. Included is the Badge Handbook, a snapshot of all badges, which can be shared with participants as a way to inspire curiosity and spark areas of interest.
Groups can then use the Learning Journal as a way to reflect on the session and as a prompt for the forthcoming session. The reflection section can be used by leaders or participants in a collaborative manner to capture the essence of what happened, what areas of interest development, what was learned and much more.
The badge descriptors are an invaluable tool to demonstrate the progress and impact of Forest School on emerging skills in all areas of development, across the 3 core areas of Skills, Knowledge and Holistic.
The Nature Principle:
'Forest School takes place in a woodland or natural environment to support the development of a lifelong relationship between the learner and the natural world'
The framework is designed to help settings immerse learners in nature and deepen their connection with the natural world. Included in the package are Wild Invitations providing a range of activity suggestions to spark imagination and ideas to incorporate into sessions.
Advocating for the environment is an important part of the framework, with many badges focused on sustainability and ensuring learning is environmentally conscious and balances activities with longevity of woodland environments, for example, woodland management or creating habitats. The framework focuses on using natural and renewable resources for learning.
The Community Principle:
'Forest School uses a range of participant-centred processes to create a community for being, development and learning, responsive to the needs and interests of participants'
The beating heart of the framework is a unique, participant-centred design, providing flexibility and choice to respond to learners needs and interests. Holistic badges in particular support progress in social, emotional and spiritual aspects of development with a strong sense of collaboration.
The Badge Journal supports leaders to plan, observe and reflect on sessions and can be used to collaborate with learners, strengthening relationships. The observation and reflection sections allow leaders to scaffold and tailor future learning and development experiences.
The Holistic Learning Principle:
'Forest School aims to promote the holistic development of all involved, fostering resilient, confident, independent and creative participants'
The framework supports leaders and learners to link experiences together across the 3 core areas (Skills, Knowledge & Holistic). Badges in each of the different areas complement each other creating an all encompassing framework for real holistic development. Better still, the Holistic badges offer specific focus on a range of social, physical, cognitive, communication, emotional and spiritual development and enable you to easily track progress in these areas, which is unlike any other framework. The SPICES framework has also been designed as a tool to specifically capture how learners engage in holistic learning skills.
The Risk Principle:
'Forest School offers participants the opportunity to take supported risks appropriate to the environment themselves'
Using the framework provides a sound starting point to map opportunities to learners individual interests. The Wild Warrior badge menu is an excellent starting point, providing learners with the opportunity to give insight into what interests, motivates and inspires them.
Risk taking can take many forms and the range of badges offered within the framework mean that measured risks which are encountered in physical (e.g. the Wild Warrior badge), social (e.g. the Leadership badge), emotional (e.g. the Wellbeing badge) opportunities and more can be catered for and steps of progress within these recognised using the respective trackers.
The Leadership Principle:
'Forest School is run by qualified Forest School leaders, who continuously maintain and develop their professional practice'
Often, after the excitement and inspiration of your training course is over, it can be easy to fall into a 'comfort zone', sticking with familiar routines and activities. The Wild Warrior framework helps you to facilitate wider learning experiences with a huge range of inspiring badges.
There are over 50 badges. Badge descriptors and engagement stages help you to know how to facilitate the next steps for a learner's particular areas of interest, something which can form the backbone of your practice as a leader and ensure you always feel confident in encouraging child-centred learning.
If you haven't yet undertaken a Level 3 qualification, there are many badges in the framework which are suitable for someone without this training and may inspire you to take the next step and become a qualified leader. However, it is crucial that educators and settings undertake the correct training and do not implement anything outside of appropriate risk assessments and qualifications.