Forest School
Forest School Lead: Mrs Andrea Macleod
At Lever House we love learning outdoors and our motto is “there’s no such thing as bad weather just inappropriate clothing.” With this in mind pupils in EYFS and Key Stage 1 are asked to bring in forest school kits which include waterproofs and wellies, as part of their uniform.
Currently EYFS and Key Stage 1 have weekly forest school sessions. Key Stage 2 undertake outdoor learning sessions linking to curriculum areas such as Science, History and Geography, these also include special ‘outdoor days’ to enhance our curriculum e.g. Stone age days, Anglo-Saxon days and Survival days.
At Lever House we believe that outdoor learning plays an important role in developing independence, resilience, cooperation, respect, trust, confidence and simple bushcraft skills.
At Lever House we believe that outdoor learning plays an important role in developing independence, resilience, cooperation, respect, trust, confidence and simple bushcraft skills.
With this in mind, we have developed our own unique ‘Lever House Outdoor Curriculum’ whereby we develop skills from EYFS to Y6. Starting with weekly forest school sessions in a small woodland on the school grounds for EYFS, developing the skills further in Year 1 and 2 and then applying them to enhance topic work in Year 3 & 4 and outdoor survival days in Year 5 & 6. In Year 4 we undertake a one night residential at an outdoor education centre where we develop the skills mentioned above whilst challenging ourselves when undertaking a range of adventurous activities like orienteering and climbing. This is in preparation for the 3 night residential in Year 6 whereby we undertake lake activities, climbing and adventure days.
We are lucky to have extensive grounds – with outdoor learning spaces for EYFS and Year 1 adjacent to their classrooms, a small forest school area for EYFS, a larger forest school area and woodland, a pond, an allotment with polytunnel and a large field.
At Lever House we endeavour to ignite a lifelong interest in the outdoors and an enthusiasm for adventure.
Forest School Overview:
Forest School Progression:
