Forest School Warrandyte is now running Term 1 2023 due to dear demand!

Running on Friday mornings from the 3rd of February to the 31st of March, we will have the luxury of weekly sessions that support play, exploration, manual skills and confidence building!

PLEASE NOTE : We have some lovely locations which we are currently assessing suitability and choosing from. The location will be revealed to you once you enroll your child/ren, for safety and privacy purposes.

We acknowledge the land of the Wurundjeri people as never being ceded. Always was, always will be Aboriginal Land.

WHAT

Join us for a term long open air Forest School that creates dynamic opportunities for child-centered hands-on, inspirational, collaborative learning projects for primary aged children. In contrast, parents are to be hands-off, outside the primary activity space, hanging back and allowing the magic to happen!

Our Forest School will not be a Drop Off this Term. This provides a safe space for children who still need the security of a parent near by and wouldn't feel confident enough on their own for the full 2.5 hours. It also provides a space for parents to withdraw to the side and allow their children to play, learn, teach, collaborate and explore, expand and test their edges of comfort. Parents with children under 7 may safely bring their younger ones to socialise together just outside of the activity space, within visual range of our Forest School.

WHO

All children aged 7 - 11 are welcome to join and learn together at Forest School. If your child turns 7 at the end of this year and you feel keen that they would be ready and gain benefit by participating, please contact us as we love being inclusive of all!

WHERE, WHEN, INVESTMENT

We will run at 2.5 hours each Friday between 10am till 12:30pm in the Warrandyte area offering the possibility of staying for a BYO community lunch after class, for $400 per child for the full term.
Please see our packages for siblings - we've done our best to make it affordable for all.
Siblings under 7 (as of the 31st of December 2023) can come along and stay in the parent area with other kids for free.
Please note that a small booking fee exists through Humanitix and is donated to children charities.

At this stage, we encourage you to book in quick as only 10 spots will be available.

Forest School requires small numbers due to the nature of the play and learning.

If there is enough demand, we will consider opening up another morning Forest School : please send us a message if this works for you.

WHAT WE WILL DO

Activities will include, making ropes courses and projects with pulleys, cubby building, basic wood work, exploratory and educational walks, nature education and making craft with the materials at hand. Story telling is encouraged and forest school games are facilitated.

If your child loves nature and wants to learn more about their environment, this is perfect as each session is themed on one educational exploration and walks are also a mainstay. Through these regular sessions, holistic growth is nurtured through play and skill encouragement, that develops confidence and self-esteem in a dynamic natural setting.

The process helps and facilitates more than knowledge-gathering, it helps learners develop socially, emotionally, spiritually, physically and intellectually. It creates a safe, non-judgemental nurturing environment for learners to try stuff out and take supported risks. It really is the space where magic happens!

Forest School emerged from Scandinavia, where Forest School is seen as an open air culture, which helps participants to become healthy, resilient, creative and independent learners.

Loads of research is out there to support the outcomes of Forest School, which you can check out for yourselves. But it isn’t just the educational outcomes or the research that matter; our observation is that the learners and leaders thrive immensely by their participation! Self responsibility, problem solving, social collaboration and self esteem all get progressively stronger through the experience.

No child is left behind and we welcome the neuro-divergent; please communicate specific needs with us before the start of term.
We do have specific rules in place that every child needs to be able to follow independently to keep themselves and others safe. As parents will stay nearby this offers a chance to allow self responsibility to be internalised for a healthy happy childhood.

Forest School is an all weather experience, so come prepared. Very rainy and windy days will have us relocated to a near-by shelter. Wind speeds over 30km/h will result in cancellation due to safety.

IMPORTANT TO NOTE

There is nothing else like this on offer in this area. It has been created out of a place of passion and knowledge for the need of an all-morning drop-in session for our community to have amazing experiences together! Therefore,

Parents need to attend with their child(ren) and be responsible for them. We love to build community.
We will require you to sign a consent document that you are hiring the facilitator to be with you while we learn in nature.
All specialised building and art materials and equipment are provided.
Recommended/optional equipment you can bring will be provided on enrollment.

At this stage, we encourage you to book in quick as only 10 spots will be available.

GET TO KNOW YOUR FACILITATOR

Our facilitator believes homeschooling is of significant importance and desires to support family's success in their educational journey. Armed with 3 University Degrees, mostly in natural sciences, and lots of practical real world experience in conservation and education, she loves to focus on a networked learning approach, encouraging talents to children bloom. With years of experience working with kids, understanding neurodivergency in action, and an enormous skill and knowledge set, classes are likely to thrill adults as much as children.

Current WWC check, First Aid & trained in early childhood and primary education.

GET IN TOUCH!
We encourage you to reach out and contact us about your questions. Here is a link to our Facebook, but you can also just press the contact host button bellow.

If you are curious about the skill level required for the woodworking or want to chat about specific needs your child has, we welcome you scheduling a call!