Website fully nurtured

Thanks for coming to the blog... but you might want to go straight to our now fully nurtured website, over here at www.scholaforis.co.uk   Just click on the link.

If you'd like to see the blog, then please continue to browse... the posts might be interesting, but the rest of the information is now at the website, along with a heap more stuff you might like. Many thanks, Alex

An association with no name.

...felt good to be out of the rain... ( you may have to be quite old to get that!)




Bit of a mid evening reflection/rant from me... but its less contentious than it would have been last night when I was all ready to give a rioja fuelled video performance... which actually could have been more effective.




So I went, I stayed and it was brilliant. So many committed, inspirational and passionate people at the launch of Forest School Thing... I want to say what it was, but what's in a name? and while the voting was going on I pondered this alot... and when I left it still didn't have a name, and I came home and thought ...actually a name is important in someways to the name holder. For instance I love my own name and I think I would have been a very different person had I been a hand me down a name first girl in a long line of Roberts: Roberta :) no offence to Roberta's out there, but I am not one. But would my journey have been so very different.




Elveston was a great venue to support years of a growing , developing but sometimes disparate movement of Forest School people with the launch of a single cohesive body of governance. That in itself is aspirational and worthy and long overdue. And many people came. Many people didn't come, because of other commitments or because they didn't know.. they weren't in the chain of communication. Many people came and had been part of the consultation, some people came cos they knew about it but hadn't been consulted on the new organisation, its name, it articles, its intentions or aspirations. Essentially it was a chaotic way to start a new legal entity. So what's new there then.. Many organisations and associations start this way.. that's what an association is: a loose collection of people. That's how the BMA started, even though now, it is the most respected and academic and rigorous of organisations. It has transcended the word and meaning of " Association" because it became the only body supporting and managing the medical profession.




So before the brilliant workshops that were shared, and the wonderful song closing from Chris Holland, and the appointment of a worthy and hard working collection of volunteer executive peeps, and the wonderful networking and meeting of friends came the very slow wrangling over the name... The two options as a result of consultation, which may or may not have reached everyone with an interest, were "Forest School Association" and "The Association of Forest School Professionals" and the vote on the day was too close to call...there were a high number of abstentions, and rightly so... because many people had concerns..




When one has trained , learned , delivered, and aspired and worked towards being a true professional, why would you want to be part of a body that called itself a professional organisation when the only requirement was to turn up and fork out an attendance and annual membership fee. Or why would you want to associate yourself with an organisation that's acronym is FSA... and it's banking associations. There was a lot of discussion about the democratic process of choosing a name, who should choose it, whether the presented group had a mandate to choose it. All very worthy arguments... but let's listen to ourselves and take a stock of where we are. There was a very long and definitive history of forest school at the start of proceedings and lots of inspirational people mentioned and applauded on our journey to date ( no mention of Ernest Westlake, bless his soul, but there we are..we don't always know the same history) and rightly so. There was discussion about the various existing bodies that have supported, championed, managed forest school thus far in all our countries that border the Atlantic and the North Sea.... all with varying degrees of success at cohesiveness. In some ways it was bizarre, because I felt I was at an IOL event...not a forest school event at all. Not that I have a problem with that particular as IOL has been very supportive of forest school with it's Forest School SIG... but there are many people delivering forest school programmes that are not part of IOL and for some of the leading of the event I wondered at the true understanding of the pedagogy of forest school and its longevity of holistic experiential learning.. I felt I was suddenly called to a very gungho adrenalin rush short outdoor activity with people who assumed we were all part of the IOL accreditation process, which many of us aren't because... well because for many reasons.....and that made me take stock of the kind of organisation I was looking to be part of....




And then we pretty much blocked voted our executive in. Well done you all for putting yourselves forwards to lead this organisation forward, credit to you all for you commitment, drive and inspiration, from all you various backgrounds.. busy times ahead, and you have a great deal of grass roots support. But many of theat grass roots support was not present because there is currently no cohesive body to manage, govern communicate with us all.. There is no central point and this move towards this is so very welcomed and so much needed. And after your appointments, the wonderful resonant, meaningful and grounding statement from our first patron Tim Gill. Thank you to him for his reminder about who we are and what we do...he didn't need to be here to imagine the bogging down of articles of association, names, officers... it's what happens when you go corporate!




So where is this rant leading....

I'm asking myself.! I lost something yesterday... and it took a couple of nights thinking beneath the bed sheets to wonder what it was... and today, through a child in a forest school session, I realised. It was about aspiration...Everything we do as FS bods is about aspiration.. our language is aspirational, our desires for our forest school participants is aspirational, we work to give them the confidence to have aspirations and to believe in those aspirations and to live them... We were not aspirational this weekend....If we were we would not be wrangling over words like association or the inclusion or otherwise of the word professional.. We should be aspiring to be an Institute... a professional body with a wealth of experience and academia.. OK so one becomes an Institute on request of the Secretary of State. an institute is more than a loose association of like minded people.. it has a purpose, it has academic rigour, it has quality assurance over training and delivery, it is inclusive in its nature but exclusive in its membership categories according to experience, training and qualification. It can set standards of qualification, and it can regulate qualification providers. It enriches the lives of all its various members. I am reminded of my own journey at the beginnings of an Association. The association of facilities managers, which was so very similar in its very loose start as this weekend... but, hell. It only took about 5 years before it became an Institute, with very rigorous structures, great networking, massive quality control and a very very respected organisation, to the point that within 8 years if you didn't have a BIFM qualification, then you would be hard pressed to get a job in the profession.. and is the force to be recognised with for building and property management in this country and further afield. But it has always been on the inclusive side so not matter what level of interest, qualification, experience you have you could be a part, according to your level of membership: and payment and recognition are also differentiated between Fellow and affiliate but everyone who cares about it should be able to join appropriately and I believe it should be the same with us. Each according to their need, each according to their contribution.




So for us as a new unnamed organisation... can we get over the name.. we ARE just an association of Forest School peeps at the moment, a loose association of people working in the same field, willing to cough up some cash at the outset to move it on its first steps. It has to start somewhere, and why not start here, bad name or not, on its aspirational journey to ensure that we as practitioners, trainers, deliverers, interested parties and ultimately children, young people, adults and families, communities and countries... indeed our planet, as Louise Ambrose put it derive the benefit of what it is we do...




Interestingly I voted for AFSP on Saturday.. I'm more inclined now to say FSA.. .and bankers be damned.. We need a name so we can get started and move towards our aspirations...that's just the way it happens to be...I can always move to propose a new name at the AGM ! I'm liking Forest School Institute... or Institute of Forest Schools... Oh Lordy, I just introduced choice..

The delights of Spring and the warmth it brings.

I love this time of year -  Spring!

I write this on the eve of the spring equinox - when our day and night is equal and when the long awaited prospect of longer days starts to become a reality. Traditionally this is the optimum day on which to prepare the earth for new seasons plantings - see The Great Big Earth Dig for more details of a great project in South West London where they will be kicking off the new seasons growth with a wonderful Community Initiative.

There is a warmth in the sun today which is being much enjoyed by the earth and the greenery sprouting: Wild strawberries are in leaf, areas smell of wild garlic coming through and the nettle tips are all ready for adding to the soup and bright green dandelion leaves begging to be tossed into a salad. The upper branches in my wood are bright with budding leaves.Tonight, if the sky stays bright, there will be the presence of  a super moon - where the moon is extremely close to our planet and will look bigger and brighter than it has for many a year. I hope you are able to see it.

Today is also exciting for me, because our new flyer for Wacky Woods is hot off the press. Wonderful activities are planned with the children in the woods over the Easter School Holidays. I share it with you here.

Risk and children...and the great outdoors.

A bit of background to me, before I start:


As part of my professional background, I've felt honoured to have been a Chartered Member of the Institute of Safety and Health (CMIOSH), based on both arduous professional experience and studious post graduate education. One of the reasons I left the Health and Safety profession, per se, is because as an individual, I am not particularly risk averse...ok I may not do extreme ironing  (in fact I no longer iron at all, but that's a different discussion!). No: one of the main reasons was that I felt, in a working environment, that clearly, whilst protection from injury is paramount, increasingly bureaucratic risk assessment was taking over from individual behavioural safety based on intrinsic risk awareness. People are becoming not just more risk averse, but are becoming increasingly unaware of risk.


So it is true of children. There is much research to show that allowing children the freedom to engage in risky outdoor play develops both their understanding of risk and offers them the opportunity to learn their own limitations. Children do not, as a general rule, seek to get hurt. Providing them with situations where they can explore the relationship between safety and potential danger extends their problem solving skills, but more importantly allows them to develop judgements, and assess risk in a variety of circumstances.


This last couple of weeks, some children taught me a thing or two about risk, assessment,  safe systems of work  and more importantly  they taught me about trust and collaboration.


They wanted a zip wire in the wood....


There were several issues here that popped into my head: height, speed, rope tension, use of shackles, weight load, ground conditions, space..... and whilst I was caught up in their enthusiastic plans, a part of me was groaning at the thought of potentially having to explain away a broken limb to a parent. I was a the border of my comfort zone as far as risk was concerned. I put these thoughts to one side as we talked about how we would go about it and I decided to trust these 8 and 9 year olds....


The discussions finally settled on  the leaders being responsible for the safety of the knots and the rope and the shackle and the seat. But we made all of these together, talking the children through the best knots for each part of the structure and encouraging them to learn these. The children then worked out their own safe system of play. One person at the landing, 3 at the top ( one to hold the rope, one to check the all clear ( the spotter) and the rider). They worked out a safe sequence: the person holding the rope with the seat would wait till the all clear from the spotter, then get a signal of readiness from the person at the bottom. The rider would say "good to go" then count down 3,2,1 at which point the rope would be let go, the rider would be off, and the person at the bottom would get ready for the landing.


They agreed the knots, the rope and the shackles would be checked before each ride, and then we set about making sure we had a landing path that was free of stone/twigs. We agreed a procedure if someone fell off. And that was it.... we had a zip wire that was "good to go".

How long is a piece of string....

or....multigenerational learning and fun with a bit of twist!

Take a 2.5 kg ball of sisal and some balls of string and a bit of polyprop rope
...how long is that string exactly?

Here are a few ideas.

I could..
Add a few twigs, learn some tripod lashing and snake lashing and make a bijou little salad table for camp fire lunch. That way the snow on the ground can't freeze the little raddichio in the bowl!

I could extend my fine motor skills by twisting the string to get a really good "thwang" for my bow and arrow. I could do exactly the same tight twist with a friend to make a fairly good woodland violin or bass guitar... I won't show you the missed target, and there's no need to comment on the February headgear!

And even in the depths of winter, I can feel beautiful knowing the string is tying my woodland crown together, secures my knife and holds my beautiful wooden pendant I whittled with a vegetable peeler. This is no ordinary fashion show.... this is a forest school fashion show!

Sisal in particular is wonderful for "holding" things in place. This gives endless opportunities for developing fine motor skills in undertaking the necessary "untwist" and "twist"... so we can create beautiful tree weavings, hanging decorations and den walls.

A woodland wall hanging of favourite pieces collected in an observation game

Teachers - proud of their well constructed den, make one wall of woven string filled with bracken

I often use sisal, string and blue polyprop rope to create opportunities for exercise. With so many schools struggling to provide the necessary hours of PE suggested by government, Forest School gives so many ways to jump, climb, run, bend, twist, giving wonderful hidden ways of improving cardiovascular health, muscle tone, physical co-ordination.... and sometimes a little bit of healthy competition! I use the blue rope to distinguish those structures and knots that need to be risk assessed and checked before each session - partly because they are load bearing: children swing on them, walk on them, jump on them. - and not always children!

String and rope as a fitness regime... go check:

Grandma on the rope swing!

Our woodland Basket Ball net!

For our basket ball we use leaves/ferns bound together with string.

Our woodland fitness course includes bars to climb over, wobbly bridges and a rope walk - The children time themselves either individually or in teams - they problem solve by working out the fastest way of getting everyone over the course in the quickest time.. and factoring in who will help who, when an obstacle is proving tough for someone. In an open, honest shared environment, children share their weak spots with others, identifying areas where they need help and acknowledging that help in achieving a team goal. This is a real life lesson - when children learn its ok and valuable to ask for help from their peers.

But do you know something.......

A piece of string lasts for ever when you use your imagination:

Its the sail of a viking longboat..........

And of course, you need string for the fairies to climb up the ladder to their fairy house - wood is far to hard for fairy feet!

Here the string provides the strength for the picture frame that shows the face of the big green lizard
( Lizard approaching from the right of the frame - see it?)

The lady of Shallott.....
There she weaves by night and day
A magic web with colours gay.
She has heard a whisper say,
A curse is on her if she stay
To look down to Camelot.

At Schola Foris and Wacky Woods, we call sisal, magic string... because we can do so much with it!

A 2.5 kg ball of sisal costs about £9.00 in the UK..........that one piece of string is more than long enough to start many, many children on a wonderful voyage of self discovery......for me, that's magic string!

Go on....stick a ball of string in your pocket and go play!

Sharing and developing Ideas... and a spot of guerilla gardening

My friend Lily, who is incredibly creative, kindly shared a post on her blog last week about shrunken apple faces: "gurning in the natural world", or "from scrumping to scary". See her post here: http://kindlingplayandtraining.blogspot.com 

Its a delightful activity for any age: sweet smelling, juicy, providing free food and a nice way of introducing tool use to children in the form of potato peelers. The end results are amazing and remarkably varied! We then talked about developing it for a Wacky Woods showcase event I'm doing for Halloween at the wonderful new Treacle Market in Macclesfield: http://www.treaclemacclesfield.co.uk by adding leafy capes and hats and creating wonderful characters that could be used to enhance some spooky story telling/role play.

I started to make my own shrunken apple face and to play around with it. It looked gruesome enough but there was something missing, it looked skeletal but not enough: I thought it needed some "garnishing". 
Ruminating, late at night, as usual, I remembered a wonderful pair of ladies I encountered at the first Just So Festival  http://www.justsofestival.org.uk/this summer.
The beautifully and extravagently dressed  Lady Gardeners were handing out little seed bombs: perfectly formed little balls of clay filled with wild flower seed that you could toss anywhere in anticipation of a future wild flower garden springing up. Guerrilla gardening! And that's when it came to me: how to garnish my shrunken apple face and apply a bit of guerrilla gardening of my own... so...

My shrunken apple head (who is affectionately know as Erik) now has spectacular ear hair in the form of aquilegia seed pods, parsley seed hair, bushy eyebrows of lavender seed and of course contains his own inner core of apple seeds.

Erik newly created before slow drying.

I think the possiblities are endless for adding seeds to various parts of his upper anatomy, and after Halloween is been and gone, I will carefully lob him into the greatoutdoors and wait to see what happens next year... Or I could introduce some spirituality and place him carefully in the ground on All Hallows Day and pray for the departed, and the rebirth of the spring to come.

Erik as he begins to dry out and shrink

I strongly suspect that someone reading this may develop the idea further... do let me know.

This time of year.

The heron was by the river yesterday and the buzzards up above, in glorious sunshine against a backdrop of stunning blue sky, and there was a soft rustle of dry leaves gently floating to the grassy hillside next to my cottage. A beautiful autumnal day bursting with warmth and energy.

Today is very different, low cloud, grey sky with a little drizzle... my beautiful village and surrounding hills have been somewhat subdued. Noise has been blanketed by the cloud and it has been quiet.

The difference in our daily weather does really affect our mood, and I don't know why this should not be so. If we are attuned to our natural world, it makes sense for our own state to someway mirror what is going on around us... so for instance, yesterday I had bags of energy, did loads of stuff, was sociable, on the ball. Today I am more reflective and I suppose one of the reasons I decided to start blogging. I may not have much to say often, and therefore will often remain silent. When I do decide to write it will because what I' m writing is important to me or I want to share something.

The point of this reflection, (being an outdoorsy bod and an advocate of learning outside, outdoor play and a passionate believer in just "being" outside- preferably amongst trees), is that whilst we are all held within the confines of offices, indoor classrooms and homes, we lose the ability, not just to engage with nature, but also to lose the enrichment afforded by succumbing to the various mood facets that our local environment can draw from us if we let it.

We are lucky in England to have such a rich variety of weather, we should therefore consider ourselves equally fortunate to have such a potentially rich variety of approaches to our daily lives, unenforced and at one with our local space.

Go outside....feel the breeze against your skin, feel the sun in your eyes or feel the rain on your face. Tomorrow we have wind forecast...I expect I'll be bustling along all the day!