Farm Forest School: Re-connecting kids to food and nature

Over the School summer holidays we’ve run weekly Farm Forest School sessions with the aim of not only being a fun day outdoors for kids but a means to re-connect children to where their food comes from and to work together cooperatively on small outdoor projects such as green wood working. During all of our Farm Forest School days, children harvest food from our fields which they prepare and cook over a camp fire.

'We often have children come along to Farm Forest school that 'don’t eat vegetables’ but when harvesting and cooking their own in the fire they seem to forget all about this and happily tuck in!’       Claire Rosling, our qualified Forest School leader

During one of the sessions over the summer, children learnt how to use bill hooks safely and worked in pairs to craft rolling pins out of hazel wood. Theythen used their rolling pins to roll out pizza dough that they’d made and topped it off with fresh ingredients they’d harvested from the field. They learnt all about fire and how to light it safely and we then cooked the pizzas in our cob oven!

Our Farm Forest School sessions are carefully planned so that children get the opportunity to light fires and use tools such as bow saws, knives and bill hooks in a safe, responsible manner; working together and helping each other. Giving children the opportunity to use what could be fairly dangerous tools like this is not only 'cool’ in their eyes but it is a real challenge and the sense of pride and achievement they gain from it is wonderful to see.

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Farm Forest School taster session
We’ll be running a Farm Forest School taster session at our Harvest Celebration on Sat 14^th September. Click here to let us know you're coming.

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Upcoming Farm Forest School dates:
Wed 30^th October, 10am - 2pm         Farm Forest School (5-7 year olds)
Thur 31^st October, 10am - 3pm         Farm Forest School (8-11 year olds)
We limit all Farm Forest School days to just 8 children and we do expect these to sell out so book early to avoid disappointment.