LOtC

What is our vision for Forest School at St Mary of the Angels?

• To nurture our children’s love of, and appreciation for, God’s creation
• To develop children’s understanding of stewardship
• To provide opportunities for children to develop and have fun in a safe and stimulating environment
• To facilitate children’s understanding of risk taking, choice making and ownership of their own learning

Learning Outside the Classroom

Learning outside the classroom is an integral part of life at St Mary's.  We place high value on enabling children to get outside and experience their learning in a natural environment.  Last year, Forest School was very popular with the children and this year we aim to build on the children's skills and develop their confidence in recognising the abilities they have.

Forest School is an inspirational learning journey, which offers ALL learners regular opportunities to achieve and develop confidence and self-esteem through hands-on learning experiences in our woodland and natural outdoor environment.  In addition, we plan to expand our Forest School provision beyond our school site to local beauty spots - such as Rivacre Valley - and places of historical importance.  In doing so, we instantly add flesh to the bones of the creative curriculum which underpins everything we strive for here at St Mary's.

What to wear during winter sessions:

• Base layer – long sleeve t shirt (or old pyjama top).  You may want to double up in winter months.
• Mid layer – an old, warm jumper that you don’t mind getting wet or muddy
• Outer layer – a waterproof coat with a hood.
• Legs - tights, long johns, leggings, old pyjama bottoms and tracksuit trousers over the top.  Waterproof trousers if possible
• Footwear – old trainers, walking boots or wellies are perfect
• Extras - a warm, woolly hat, gloves, and scarf.

What to wear during summer sessions:

• Base layer – preferably a long-sleeved t-shirt although a short-sleeved t-shirt may suffice if the weather is hot
• Outer layer – a thin, waterproof jacket or coat
• Legs – long tracksuit bottoms are essential.  These help to avoid bites and stings during the summer months.
• Footwear – old trainers, walking boots or wellies are perfect
• Extras - a freshly filled water bottle, sun cream applied before school.

Year 3 Forest School - Thursday 18th April

This week we spent our Forest School session at Rivacre Valley, learning how to identify our location on a map. We learned all about 2-figure grid references and identified different symbols and keys which are used on maps to help us identify where we are. We then used natural resources to build routes on the floor of the forests to show our route from school to Rivacre Valley. We vcame back to school and finished our session with a fire and a toasted marshmallow.

Year 2 Forest School - Thursday 25th April

We had a wonderful Forest School session this morning despite the unpredictable weather.  We did lots of work about minibeasts and the morning just flew by.  The children made bug hotels, clay models and hunted around the grounds for minibeasts.  We played games to explore food chains and at the end of the session we enjoyed a fire with delicious marshmallows.

Year 1 Forest School - Thursday 2nd May

It finally felt as though Spring had arrived during our Forest School session today.  With the sun shining down, we were able to shed our coats and get stuck into our activities.  Our session was based on 'The Three Little Pigs' to link to our current Once Upon a Time topic.  We made a house using natural materials for the pigs, cut a log slice to draw a character on and used fire lighters.  All the children found the fire lighters tricky and had to persevere.  We talked about it being okay to find things difficult especially when they are new experiences.  The children were incredibly proud when they could get a small spark!

EYFS Forest School - Thursday 9th May

EYFS enjoyed a lovely Forest School session in the sunshine today. This half term our topic is 'under the sea' and we had lots of fun making boats using tin foil and then testing them to find out whether they floated or sank. We also worked as a team and built a big raft out of wood and canvas materials. We used clay and natural materials to make fantastic sea creatures and we were very proud of our models! Next week we are going to paint and glaze them so we can take them home. We were very excited to find some worms and snails and enjoyed exploring the forest school area. We played lots of team games to develop our listening skills and loved our delicious hot chocolate and marshmallows!

Year 5 Forest School - Thursday 17th May

This week we had a brilliant time in our Forest School session with Jon.  We started the day by picking up our very own GPS system!! Next, we left school and used ordnance survey maps to create a route around our local village of Little Sutton.  On our journey, we headed up to Rossmore and regularly revisited our maps to find our location.  On our maps we were able to locate ponds in Rivacre Valley (Ellesmere Port Golf Club) and also the train station in Little Sutton.  We learned that the symbol for a train station is a red dot on a black line and then found our way back to school by identifying that sch represents school on an ordnance survey map.When we returned to school, we had a chance to create our own maps of Little Sutton out of natural resources in our Forest School area.

Year 6 Forest School - Thursday 24th May

Our forest school session this week was focused on first aid training, learning many different aspects of first aid and how to respond in an emergency situation. As a class, we discussed how to communicate with the emergency services during an emergency and how to pass on information to nearby adults. We were then fortunate enough to access resources like the Little Anne CPR dolls as well as a model of a defibrilator. We were mature and respectful when learning how to safely use this equipment as well as learning how to administer CPR if someone is not breathing. Alongside this, we also learned how to properly apply a bandage to a bleeding wound. Thank you so much to Jon for this valuable lesson which we will use for years to come!

Year 1 Forest School - Thursday 28th June

For our Forest School session this week we ventured to Rivacre Valley, walking there and back.  OUr first activity was to hide in the woods and for Mrs Wilson to find us.  TJ was superb at hiding, and we thought we had lost him - only joking! Mrs Williamson was helping him to hide.  We then used tree identification packs to help us name trees before we measured them with a tape measure.  After our fun in the woods, we came back to school for a camp fire.  One of our parent volunteers was a bit of an expert and helped us toast our marshmallows beautifully.  We had a wonderful time and we are thankful for all our parent helpers who made it possible.

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