Alternative Learning Provision for Reception & KS1
What we offer....
We offer early intervention to children who are experiencing difficulties in mainstream education, by giving them the opportunity to attend our Forest school alongside school .
A child's 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 learnt and developed.
Using different activities, we encourage teamwork, helping each other, joining ideas together and looking out for our friends.
We all know that spending time in a woodland has so many benefits to our health and wellbeing.
It is proven that it boosts our physical and mental health. Spending time in a woodland lowers cortisol levels, helping us all feel calmer and less anxious. Sights, sounds and smells of a woodland environment have been proven to make us feel happier and more focused.
It is a place to heal.
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 observe the development of resilience and confidence in children, which then leads to independence and creativity.
Children start to feel good about themselves as they heal in the natural space around them. They 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 natural environment
Our daily routine
Our routine will become familiar quickly. We all sit together round an open fire and have 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 vision
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 by clicking the link below completing the referral form to discuss spaces for September 2026;
