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CHILDREN SINGING>>> Forest School kids go round the outside, round the outside, round
the outside, Forest School kids go round the outside so they don't get burned by the fire!!
CHILDREN SHOUTING>>> Great Kingshill Goes Wild!! Whoop!!
BAILEY>>> I'm the Forest School Leader at Great Kingshill School, we are here today
in the woods at North Dean, Piggotts Hill, and the woodland is owned by one of our school
governors so he's really keen for us to spend time in the woods, doing outdoor learning
and they get a huge amount from it.
GEORGE>>> This is a small tunnel, where they get into the tower, then they can climb up
here.
BAILEY>>> Today we've got a group of Year Three children, this is their third visit
to the woodland this year although they did do a six week Forest Schools programme last
year. They're learning to communicate with each other, problem solving skills, making
fires, and using tools.
REMY>>> When I was walking I found this mushroom and it's all spikey.
HOLMES>>> What do you know about mushrooms and fungi in the woods?
REMY>>> You can't eat them because they're poisonous.
BAILEY>>> It's an idea that came from Scandinavia about ten years ago, Nursery Nurses from Bridgwater
College in Somerset went to Scandinavia and came back realising that outdoor learning
is really important. They were so enthused by what they saw there that they set up a
Forest School and things have grown and progressed from there, and Buckinghamshire has embraced
the idea over the last year or so.
HOLMES>>> Tell me about this den then you guys?
BEN>>> Well I like sitting down here, this is my personal space, although I haven't really
sat down here for a while.
HANNAH>>> Last week we called it the snake ladder
HOLMES>>> How did you build it?
HANNAH>>> This was already there but we got loads of logs and sticks
BEN>>> But I put this one here as I wanted to be Tarzan
OGBORNE>>> We're making a fire, we've made our base already but then we just collect
some dry beech and we're just breaking it up, and making a sort of square on the fire.
Now in here we're going to make fire with one of these, and what you do is you hold
it there and you scrape it down, can you see the sparks? And you keep scraping as hard
as you can, until you get a spark.
OGBORNE>>> Have you got your spark yet Hannah?
HANNAH>>> No I don't think so
OGBORNE>>> Well you have to perservere
HANNAH>>> It looks like a melted marshmellow
OGBORNE>>> If we put some of our dry stuff on, then we can move it on.
BAILEY>>> Is that part of your picture?
LEXI>>> Yeah those two leaves are part of it, and I'm going to put some holly on and
make it different colours.
BAILEY>>> Many of the children, especially boys, do find it difficult to concentrate
in class, but out here that doesn't matter they can excel at moving around, climbing
trees, doing things they wouldn't normally be able to do.
HANNAH AND PIPPA (sing)>>> Popcorn is beautiful, Popcorn,
BAILEY>>> It's the
underpinning skills, of communication, cooperation and problem solving. They can then use those
skills when they get back into school, and we very much teach as well to manage their
own risk, so we ask them the question, is what you're doing safe, and if not, how can
we make it safe?