FOREST SCHOOL

Welcome to Snape Forest School with Kinna!

We are a holistic forest school with a unique twist.

While we follow and fulfil all Forest School Association requirements to high standards, we also learn organic gardening, permaculture, conservation, community and nature care, nature connection and more.

Together we learn through fun and play, exploration, inspiration, observation, creativity, questioning, connecting and re-wilding ourselves while learning respect for nature and each other.

We build a loving, caring community of good health, practical skills and creativity which, in-tern, help all other areas of learning and development both inside and outside the classroom.

I aim to grow confidence, resilience, awareness, skills and imaginations on a foundation of love.

I do this through re-weaving lost golden threads of connection to nature and teaching green-living skills which inspire a way of living in better balance for the benefit of ourselves and the planet.

Permaculture (a sustainable method of design, living and growing for gardens, land and people) has three main ethics which form a basis of our forest school.

They are simply Earth Care, People Care and Fair Shares.

Teaching children of all ages organic gardening and conservation not only gives hope to the future of our planet but also gives the children essential life skills. They are empowered by learning how to grow their own food which will be useful for their entire lives. It inspires healthier eating, good living in the fresh air, caring for nature and also gives great skills for potential future work. The children thrive in experiencing the simple yet profound wonder of  caring for the soil, sowing seeds and nurturing their own plants to harvest and in-turn feeding themselves and the community. We regularly supply the village larder with healthy organic vegetables and plants and did so throughout lockdown.

It is amazing how all subjects of the curriculum cross over into forest school and gardening - maths, science, design and technology, language, poetry, story-telling, music, history, geography and more feed into our child-led experiences. Every week we learn new words, discover new wonders and spontaneously create and experience magic.

Whether it's building a camp-fire, going on adventures, making crafts, gardening, forest bathing, exploring, looking for bugs, bird watching or simply playing in the trees and dens, what the children learn is always multi-faceted and runs deep because it is embodied practical experience.  This therefore gives great understanding to their place in the world and their learning.

Through our unique forest and nature school the children learn a sense of place and belonging, it is the children who create it and care for it, they are guided to come up with their own plans, ethos and rules, they make decisions as individuals and as a group, all instilling a wonderful sense of ownership, creation and community with heart. This nurtures strong, resilient and caring, bright children.