We offer early intervention to children who are experiencing difficulties in mainstream education. These difficulties may be the result of adverse childhood experiences, mental health or special educational needs.
Using a holistic approach, we focus on the child’s social, emotional and physical needs within our nurturing environment.
We offer child-led activities, allowing children to choose their own direction for learning. Children are encouraged to assess and manage their own risk with adult support and learn what their capabilities are. Within a small group of 8 children, social skills are developed. Using different activities, we encourage teamwork, helping each other, joining ideas together and looking out for our friends.
Our natural environment supports self-regulation, and we support children as they learn to be aware of their own feelings and the feelings of others. Over time, we will observe the development of resilience and confidence, which then leads to independence and creativity. Children start to feel good about themselves as they heal in the natural space around them.
Children start to feel safe and calm. Being a trauma informed practice, we recognise that behaviour is communication and we need to meet a child’s individual needs by being their supportive enabling adult and building trusting relationships with them. We want children to grow and develop through trust, not pressure. Our routine will become familiar, with us all sitting together round an open fire and having a hot chocolate to start our day. Different activities will be on offer, including whittling, woodwork, painting, drawing, observing the flora and fauna and playing on the obstacle course and den building. We can then venture into the woodland, to build dens, climb trees, and observe the natural changes in the trees and woodland floor. We will return for lunch and then continue with our activities or explore the field and return to the woodland.
Our aim is to give each individual child the opportunity to be successful and empowered so that they can re-engage not only into education, but into society. The skills we learn and develop at forest school are lifelong. We work closely with parents and schools to ensure that we are all working towards the same goals.
Children can attend 1, 2 or 3 days a week, alongside school. We share small, next steps to progress towards, and give each child a learning journal that they can share at school and home, with photos of their forest school journey.
Please contact us via email to discuss spaces
for September 2026; info@keepersgateforestschool.com
