With thanks to Jude Vinton, Chris Holland, Sarah Allington and Maria Sprostranovia for sharing photos

Some of the materials we used are shared here. We would love you to share them with your colleagues and teams with attribution.

This is the very simple introduction to the model we’ve been exploring. It doesn’t go into the olive oil or mayonnaise, which is the resources we take with us, or what to do when you get a raw potato in your salad…

Vicky and I used the ideas we were exploring to create a self evaluation tool which we share below:

As with any form of reflective questioning it is important to be kind to ourselves and not look for reasons to criticise our practice but to look at the areas we can explore further.

Reflective questions

Lettuce – LAND/SITE – NATURE

ME – APPRECIATION

• What do I appreciate from the land I offer sessions in?
• What can I do to be more connected to this land?
• What does it move in me?
• What inspires in me?
• How does tending this land/site feel?

I feel connected to this land/site

OTHERS- GROUP- OFFER

• Whats does this type of landscape offer (affordances) 
• How does being in this land/site promote:

• Connection to wildlife
• Playfulness
• Mystery/wonder
• Exploration
• Discovery
• Healing
• Grounding/Calmness

• Is there is a rich array of non-human elements to interact with, plants, trees and wildlife 
• The number and range of loose parts for play is optimum?

The site is rich in nature and loose parts

NATURE- LOGISTICS

• What can we do to care for the impact we have on this piece of land?
• How easy is it to get to?
• What does the site size offer/sparks to explore, do, propose?
• Resilience of the land. Can the land handle the amount of activity?

 The land is resilient to the amount of activity on it 

What does the land need?

Onion – LEADER – ME

ME – APPRECIATION – Internal

• My gifts: Which are my gifts? How could I make use of them in the sessions, in the team or in my development as a forest school leader?
• My personal management: How am I dealing with my own issues? Am I aware of them? Am I able to be grounded in my delivery?
• My interests: What I am interested in at the moment? Can it be possible to discover or share things in this field alongside the participants?  How can this be woven into the sessions?
• My experiences: Am I using my own experiences and processes to enrich my practice? Am I using them to guide me in acknowledging and sustaining the participants’ own processes?
• My knowledge: Is it rich enough to lead the sessions I wish to deliver? Does it respond to the needs & interests of the participants?

• My training and my access to professional development or mentoring: does it make me feel resourceful, grounded and supported in dealing with the needs/interests of the sessions I offer?  Does it make me feel ready for the project I am involved with or the team I’m a part of?

I have training and access to professional development or mentoring

OTHERS- TEAM – in relation to

• Do I feel supported in my role or I’m part of a team?
• Do I/we feel that our team has a system in which we come into dialogue and agreement when need be?
• Do I/we feel that the team shares the gifts of its members and allows for each other’s best work?

I feel supported in my role or I’m part of a team

PARTICIPANTS & NATURE- External

• Do I feel confident to allow participants to lead their learning and take a step back?
• Am I confident to create a community of learning?

I feel confident to hold the flow of the session and create a community.

What may I need?

Tomatoes – GROUP – PARTICIPANTS

INDIVIDUALS – APPRECIATION – Internal (me to them)

• Do I know the participants? Who they are, their background, needs, etc?
• Do I feel connected to all the participants of the group?
• Am I being proactive in creating a positive relationship with all the participants in the group?
• How do I support the holistic development of the participants?
• How do I deal with complex needs, trauma or Adverse Childhood Experience?
• Do I manage to create acceptance and non judgment of the participants, within me and among each other? If not, what do I do about it?

I feel able to connect with all the participants with a non judgemental attitude. 

We are individuals, and I accept others as their are and where they are at

GROUP – TEAM – OFFER (them to each other- group dynamic) 

• Do I know the group? How can I get information about them?
• Do I know the background of the group? 
• How do I support the holistic development of the group?
• Do they know each other? If not, what can I do to help break the ice?
• How do I build community, for the group to deal with participants who have complex needs, trauma or Adverse Childhood Experience?

I/We can support the needs and dynamic of the group 

We create/are a community

THEIR RELATION TO NATURE & PROCESSES- External

• What is my approach to holistic development and outcomes in a natural setting?
• What do I do to make a group feel comfortable in a natural space? Open (no boundaries), changing and alive environment?
• Does the group feel comfortable in this land/site? 
• What is their relation to nature?
• Do they have experience of nature on a regular basis?
• What are their interests? What do they like to explore?
• How do they get inspired?

 The group feels comfortable and confident in the space/land

What does the group need?

We belong in nature. We are part of nature. We feel part of nature

OTHER RELATED THOUGHTS AND REFLECTIVE ISSUES

Playing with and extending the metaphor 

THE BOWL – 6 PRINCIPLES

• 6 principles
• 3 main FS rules (care of me, group, nature)

I can implement the ethos of Forest School 

THE TABLECLOTH – SOCIAL AND CULTURAL

How does the background, culture, and communities that the participants and practitioners come from influence the way the participants and practitioners connect with each other and the land.

THE DRESSINGS AND FLAVOURS- RESOURCES AND TOOLS

Which of the tools are vital to how we look after ourselves?

Which resources activate our relationship with nature and which of them distract from the relationship?

Which resources act as a transitional object for participants who are out of their comfort zone?

We are fascinated to hear how this lands with you and what other elements you are finding in your salad.

I got tired of marshmallows a while back but having a range of snacks that folk can cook themselves is one of my favourite things.

If you have never had a bit of toasted malt loaf on a stick then I think you probably need to nip out now and light a fire.

I’ll let Lina explain it in her own words.

My forest school journey has been a case of rewilding myself. The training was like a spell that was cast to enable me to see things in my everyday environment that I could not see before. The invisible became visible. I was given a VIP pass. To go and meet local celebrities like the peregrine falcon, not just a bird anymore. I introduced a new culinary herb to my neighbour: Allium ursinum she was over the moon “send me a link I must order some” she said…. follow me I said just 500m from our door by the river I said: there wild garlic haven it’s not “click & collect” its “pick & eat” simples hey! 

The timing of my journey was a blessing in disguise, for my family and for my work. When lock down hit I had my eyes so open I was able to take my family out on their 1 hour a day outing allowance and make the most of it. Even just being in our garden we realise actually it’s not our garden we are merely visitors there spending little time there compared to the night time cctv cams, we have hedgehogs, owls, foxes, bats and crazy midnight cats! We can’t really call it our garden now can we. Working with children in this outside world of wonder i witnessed a very touching moment in the life of a 5yr old in covid distress. His mum, an A&E nurse, dad a Helicopter Paramedic. Worked throughout lockdown, B came into school every day throughout, missing his normal routine and being clambered into a mixed age bubble he was aware that he was the only one in every day. We would be outside most of the time as it was the perfect place to be. He said he never knew you can be outside for so long without being told off… we also observed the coming of spring and one afternoon sat on the embankment with me he said “Lina can I pick this dandelion as the bees no longer need it and I can help the seeds fly off, they can help me make a wish?” of course yes B I sat and watched as he picked the dandelion, gave a big huff and puff and stated the words “I WISH COVID TO GO AWAY, I MISS MY MUM & DAD AND MY SCHOOL CLASS” 

We had also spent time in school together but he seemed more sensitive, more open, more perceptive outside. Something was allowing him to.

This magic spell cast on me has allowed me to understand “Bird song”, I shared this magic with a group of children one day whilst making Elder necklaces. I heard an urgent call of a sparrow and another and another. I alerted the children to look and whispered narrative of what was going on- there are two grown birds and a little one flying… the older ones seem to be raising an alarm and heading back to the tree… lo and behold a crow swoops down into his gaping beak went the little sparrow…. off into the next field where the crow was followed by the older sparrows squealing… it must be mummy and daddy… this sparked lots of conversation about birds and other animals we had seen at forest school and in the world.  At the end of that session in reflection one of the children said “I had no idea the birds had a life” They secured the learning that animals too need to wake up, go out into the world, learn to fly, learn to make a home, get food, feed children, play out, bath, wow they just like us. We all have things to do. We all matter to each other.

Another pivotal point was meeting the prickly plant that we don’t like and becoming its friends. So much so that this year we watched eagerly as it rose up from the ground to snap it up. April 2019 we made nettle soup in session, one kid was no way going near that prickly bush that spikes people. He did not forage for leaves he did however watch curiously as the others did and when it came to tasting he was very waring but willing to have a try … he held his bowl said he enjoyed the warmth in his hands, liked the kitchen smell of it, dipping his spoon in and just touching it to his tongue he was confused … I don’t know why I think I like it I’m going to keep trying … long story short he had thirds of nettle soup. This year I heard him showing his mum look here its growing, you don’t even have to go to the shop for it. It’s called Nettle. Say hi mum.

We are all very disconnected from the world we are part of. I hope my journey will allow me to cast the spell onto those that cannot see the invisible right before their eyes …YET! 

So much to learn in life inside or outside both however equally important. Everything has a purpose.

We are not alone. We cannot be as we would not survive.

We are a part of something.

Chris Holland is a storyteller, outdoor educator and forest school leader  with a passion for storytelling who wants to help people of all ages feel at home and care for the earth, and their own selves!

The courses could help you become a better storyteller, inspire you to be a natural musician and give you so much juicy stuff through the Storytellers Playbook. He uses a really inspiring range of videos, hand drawn storyboards, tips and tricks, questions to unleash your skills, mp3 files, MID TERM PLANS for teachers,  loads of activity ideas…and more.

I have found it so nourishing to have something to focus on. Building my own skills and ideas. He has some great hooks that I already use and some new ones I will be using in my work in the future. Chris has been a longtime source of great ways to connect with nature and other people. His book ‘I love my world‘ is so lovely too.

In the words of one teacher “This course is INSPIRATIONAL! I love the stories, the background information, the activity ideas. It’s a fabulous resource. It’s also very supportive, recognising that it’s not always that easy to tell a story.”

Why not give it a go and click the link below?

I really have done these courses, people who have been out in the woods with me will recognise some of the ideas I have shared and I do get a small commission if you decide to buy Chris’s courses and books from the links on this page.

The size of our Kubb pitch is based on the size of the flat bit we have in the garden.

Here’s how to start. we had teams of up to 6. People were able to come and go in the teams too.

In this picture the blue player has thrown the throwing sticks. The purple player is throwing the kubbs that have been knocked over onto the other side of the field.

Huge thanks to Kim for introducing me to this game at a Forest School practitioner gathering.

If you play a game of Kubb let me know!

It is universally accepted that it is unsafe to take groups into the woods in high wind. This leads to one of the most asked questions for people who take groups into woodlands. How high a windspeed is too dangerous to be in the woods? 

As with any question of risk there is not a simple answer. Having spoken to insurance companies about this the response was to follow your risk assessment and use common sense. This doesn’t mean choosing an arbitrary number because someone has that as their cut off point. 

This begs the question what should be in the risk assessment and what should we consider? 

The Beaufort scale for land is a really useful starting point for judging when you need to start managing the risk. Here’s a woodland version which should give you a good sense of what will be going on at various predicted wind speeds. Download a copy here.

Remember the predicted windspeed and the actual windspeed could be higher or lower. Look at predicted gusts too. Gusts of 50mph will bring down branches as surely as steady winds of the same speed. 

The Met Office have an alert system for the UK which can send you weather warnings for specific locations or regions. 

To understand the risk you will also need to consider the geography and state of the woodland. Here are some factors to think about when deciding what windspeed can be tolerated in your wood and if you have to cancel or move site: 

• Age of trees, young trees are likely to be more resilient to the effect of wind.
• Health of trees including the amount of deadwood in the canopy. Look for fungi or damage. Even if the fungi is close to or at the base of a beech or other tree it could indicate root plate damage. 
• Species of tree; Is it for example crack willow or aspen which are particularly brittle?
• Shape of the trees; as a general rule the more branches there are on a tree the better the wind is diffused throughout it to keep it upright. Are the trees top heavy? Are there ‘wolf’ trees that extend above the rest of the canopy? Are there lots of horizontal branches which sway more in winds? 
• Woodland management; have trees been removed that may have protected existing trees from wind? Trees acclimate themselves to what they have experienced. 
• Underlying ground conditions; are they wet which could make trees less stable? is the ground rocky or has thin soil which may create shallow root systems? 
• Direction of the wind; are you protected by hills or exposed to the elements?
• Direction of the wind; is it different from the usual South Westerly winds we get in the UK? Trees will be more capable of bearing up in these conditions. 
• Season; are the trees covered in leaves creating a sail effect? Is this the first storm of the season? 
• Proximity of other areas that would be safe e.g. playing fields, meadows or beaches.
• Size of the group and age of the children, could you move quickly if conditions changed? 
• Access in and out of the woodland including travel and transport.
• Other weather conditions that might increase the risks. Wind chill can make a cold day feel colder and high winds mixed with snow and ice can be challenging. 

Having a plan B up your sleeve is important if you do go ahead. I love making kites, wind socks and streamers when I have to move out of the woods because of wind. I also love leaning against the wind with my coat above my head.

Checking the site after a storm event is important to make sure there is no new hanging dead wood up with the trees. 

If it feels unsafe when you are in the woods, then trust your instinct.  If you do have to cancel or there are high winds predicted and you can safely get to your site then this would be a good opportunity to assess how the wood responds to different wind speeds. You can get Anemometers to help you measure actual wind speed compared with predicted winds in your location.

 I probably wouldn’t go as far as that great American naturalist John Muir and climb to the top of a big tree in a wind storm to truly experience the power of nature. His essay ‘A wind storm in the Forests’ is an amazing piece of writing. 

With this in mind I have created the second part of this planning tool. I have been printing them double sided and it’s really helped me order my thoughts. 

The section for the practitioners learning has become increasingly important for me. it’s the space where I can reflect on things that have challenged me and think about how my behaviours impacted on the flow of the session. 

The small boxes are where i start jotting ideas for the following session. It may be based on requests from the children, observations I have made and things I think might extend the behaviours I have seen or will meet needs I have seen expressed. 

You can download the template here and as ever, I’m always keen to hear feedback. Let me know if you have used it!