Forest School & Outdoor Learning

If you opt for one of our log cabins with a central BBQ grill, you can implement fire safety and cooking lessons into your forest school or outdoor learning curriculum. This creates opportunities for critical thinking and the development of risk management skills, identifying and dealing with potential hazards and decision making. Risk-taking in a controlled, safe environment can help to develop a child’s self-confidence, resilience, the expansion of their personal boundaries and the improvement of executive functioning abilities too.

Creating or developing a forest school programme with an outdoor classroom or log cabin opens up endless opportunities for group work. Students can develop their teamwork skills as well as practising conflict resolution. Having the skills to empathise and collaborate with others affects school cohesion, friendships and wellbeing. When students are sat at the same desks next to the same people everyday, there is minimal opportunity to branch out and form new friendships or work with a variety of peers. Forest schools and outdoor learning environments provide students with new and alternative spaces to try out new activities together as part of a team. Having a forest school programme also creates opportunities to develop problem-solving abilities.

Traditional classroom setups often limit opportunities for peer-to-peer communication, which is essential for developing interpersonal and communication skills. While these setups are effective for teaching academic lessons and hard skills, they may not be as conducive to practicing key soft skills. Our circular log cabins are designed with communication in mind. By arranging students in a circle, eye contact and active listening are naturally encouraged, creating an ideal environment for the development of effective communication skills—an essential part of every student’s learning journey.

By creating an outdoor learning or forest school space at your school, you can create so many opportunities for your students to take ownership of their school grounds, outdoor classrooms and green spaces. It might be that you choose to grow vegetables or flowers and provide students with the responsibility of nurturing them and watching them grow. Responsibility is a very important transferable soft skill for all aspects of their future lives.

The students at Cutnall Green C of E Primary School have an admirable sense of ownership for their forest school space. They helped to clear their school grounds of sticks in preparation for their fantastic Cabins for Schools log cabin to be built. The students are provided with so many opportunities to get involved and take responsibility for their environment and facilities.