A primary school is urging other schools to follow its example after it began teaching children in a woodland classroom during lockdown.
Little Reddings Primary School in Bushey has dedicated every Friday since the first Covid lockdown to ‘forest school’ lessons.
Lessons have included learning about the love potions in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and creating their own love potions using things that they found in the woods.
Year five teacher Mrs Samuels said: “‘The explanations that pupils came up with were truly wonderful, reminding me of the unlimited potential of this beautiful learning space.’
The idea for a forest school came to teacher Andy Wells, during the first lockdown.
He said: “It makes me feel so happy to see our pupils exploring the newly constructed forest area - it is as if they are on a residential holiday within our school grounds!”
Head teacher Rebecca Tregear added: “Our forest school has brought the words of Margaret McMillan to life, who once said ‘the best classroom and the richest cupboard are roofed only by the sky’.”
Margaret McMillan, born in 1860, was a nursery school pioneer and lobbied for the 1906 Provision of School Meals Act.
Little Reddings School says it is eager to support other local schools to understand more about forest school learning, and how to integrate it into daily school life.
To find out more visit their website https://www.littlereddings.org.uk/
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