Forest School

An exciting development for 2017 is the formation of our first Forest School group for children, which will be led by Lucy, an experienced Forest School teacher. Ever since hearing about the idea of forest schools or outdoor schools we’ve been excited by the idea of getting a group going and an amazing bunch of children and parents have come together to make this happen.

Although our current group is now full, we aim to start another group so please contact us to register your interest and we’ll keep you posted. Please let us know whether you are interested in weekday, weekend or holiday sessions, as we are working to organise new sessions according to demand.

Lackan Farm Forest school is a not for profit project – we are providing the venue at no cost, and any charges are made to cover teaching or necessary admin costs such as insurance. Parents contribute food, woodfuel and equipment to enable the sessions to happen, and we hope that the group will grow to put on additional activities as time goes by.

Each group meets one afternoon a fortnight, with another informal meetup on the intervening weeks, when participating families are able to drop in. Group ages range from 2 – 10 years, and children learn together in a mixed age group.

Forest School has been an integral part of early year’s education in Scandinavia since the 1950’s. The philosophy of the Forest School/Nature Nurseries was based upon their desire to provide young children with an education which encouraged appreciation of the wide, natural world and which would encourage responsibility for nature conservation in later life.

The outdoor environment encourages and inspires children to grow in confidence, independence, self-esteem and develop an ability to assess risks for themselves.

The children quickly learn boundaries within which they must work. They respond to the sense of freedom and adhere to the rules laid down for their safety . They go out in all weathers. They explore and use natural materials found in the forest. Within a safe secure environment it is possible to encourage the children to move away from close adult interaction and to become more responsible for each other and for themselves. Parents of children involved in Forest School have reported changes in independence, motivation, self-esteem and their child’s social outlook.

Although our current group is now full, we aim to start another group so please contact us to register your interest and we’ll keep you posted. Please let us know whether you are interested in weekday, weekend or holiday sessions, as we are working to organise new sessions according to demand.

Forest school enquiry

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Forest school teacher Lucy O’Hagan

Lucy O’Hagan has worked with young people for the past 7 years both within and outside of the classroom environment. After completing her degree in Social Anthropology and French, she worked in schools in the Caribbean and Reunion Island, assisting in the integration of environmental learning across the curriculum. She trained as a Level 3 Forest School practitioner in March 2015 and, as a result, set up the Phoenix Forest School in September 2015. The forest school runs popular monthly family days, bushcraft gatherings and forest school programmes for primary aged children.

Over the past year, Lucy has been deepening her understanding of nature and passion for teaching at the Woodcraft school in West Sussex with John Rhyder. She has completed a NCFE Level 4 in Practical Ethnobotany. She is currently completing her NCFE Level 4 Bushcraft Instructors course which involves sleeping out in the woods for one week a month, September-June, learning practical bushcraft skills and effective ways to teach these to others.

Lucy is passionate about reconnecting children and adults with nature. She is particularly interested in rewilding and rekindling the knowledge and skills we once knew so intimately, which connect us to our place in the world. She feels most at home sitting outside, by the fire, listening to the sound of the woods at night.