Woodland Nurture

15/03/2025

Jenn Hodge, a fantastic advocate for vulnerable children and families.

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/16L2uDSmVm/

13/03/2025

Today we learnt about Holi, the Hindu festival of colour that marks the arrival of Spring and the triumph of good over evil.

The day culminated in a joyous colour party!

12/03/2025

Despite a very biting north wind taking any heat out of the sunshine, we've had a super couple of days in the woods.

A wide variety of activities including fairy homes, dissecting owl pellets, tool work, digging projects, cooking wild garlic pesto pasta and much more!

07/03/2025

I've been completing a questionnaire today for a Uni Student, about the benefits of Forest School, with particular focus on SEND children and Social, Emotional and Mental Health.

It made me reflect on this amazing poem by Jonny Fluffypunk aka Jon Seagrave.

Always worth a share.

"Let's take the children out the classroom and put them by a tree. Let's let the forest school them, please."

06/03/2025

Just 4 more days to get your applications in before we start shortlisting!

05/03/2025

Fun in the sun for our midweek gang!

These superstars really know how to be busy and chilled at the same time!

05/03/2025

Come and join us at Stay and Play for World Book Day!
📚📖📚📖📚📖📚
10.10-12.10 this Thursday 6th March.

We will be going on a book hunt through the woods and making book characters on spoons and masks.

Come dressed up if you'd like to or you can use our dressing up clothes too.

04/03/2025

Shrove Tuesday and Mardi Gras themed our session today with carnival mask and musical instrument making and pancakes cooked on the fire.

04/03/2025

Enjoy your pancakes this Shrove Tuesday!

Producing wheat for your flour,
Milking cows by the hour,
Collecting eggs from the hens in the barn,
Farmers are busy, working hard on the farm.

From morning till night, they give it their all,
To ensure we eat meals, both big and small,
So when you enjoy your pancakes, savoury or sweet,
Remember the farmers who made it complete🥞🥚🥛

02/03/2025

On the scrounge....

We would be immensely grateful if you are able to donate any of the following...

*My Little Pony toys and books

*scaffolding planks

*drain pipes

*toy dinosaurs

*toy diggers

*toy shop and accessories

*off-cuts of wood for woodwork projects

*wool

Many thanks in advance!

02/03/2025

01/03/2025

FAMILY FUN DAY ANNOUNCEMENT!
🐣🐰🐣🐰🐣🐰🐣🐰
‼️HOT OFF THE PRESS‼️
🐣🐰🐣🐰🐣🐰🐣🐰
Monday 7th April we will be joined at our Easter Family Fun Day by local children's author Becky Syson.
🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵
Becky will be sharing her new book, "The Spot Spot Song" and engaging you all in some singing and dancing.

We will also have a wide range of seasonal activities as well as our much loved continuous provision. Hammocks, zip line, slack lines, digging area...

Teas and coffees provided plus marshmallows toasted on the fire.

Tickets are limited and will SELL OUT so get booking now !

https://woodlandnurture.pembee.app/activity/67c3106c71589ef852384377

28/02/2025

Great to welcome our groups back in the woods after our half term break.

Tuesday's session focused on mask making.
Wednesday saw us constructing using a range of loose parts.
Thursday's session started with a dragon hunt since the theme was St David's Day.
Throughout all the sessions the children strengthened connections through their child-centred play.

24/02/2025

Helpful course if you have a teen recovering from school-based trauma...

I’ve been talking to self-directed teenagers. Teenagers who have been allowed to retain control for their learning – meaning that no one has said ‘You must learn this’ or ‘If you don’t learn this, you’ll be in trouble’. Teenagers who can choose what they learn and how they learn it.

Some of them have never been to school, but most of them have been to a bit of school. In most cases they left because they were so unhappy there that it was clear that it wasn’t working. Some of them had developed serious symptoms whilst at school. Eating disorders, depression and severe anxiety. Most of them identified as neurodivergent.

They told me about how they learnt things. Something really stood out for me from all their stories.

They all saw themselves as the active agent in their learning. They were the person who makes things happen – with help from others, but ultimately, by deciding that they wanted to learn. They would get interested in something, seek out resources, and start learning. They saw no need to wait for a teacher or a course to start. They told me about learning languages, creative writing, maths, music, needle-felting, sewing, history and drama. Their learning was for them, not for anyone else.

They told me about knowing that they would need to learn some things if they wanted a particular future, and so they’d have to learn it now, even if that wasn’t their preference. Their parents were not making them practice things. They practiced because they wanted to get better at doing things. They could quit if they wanted to – and several of them had quit things.

When I asked them what helped their learning, the majority of them talking about agency. They said things like ‘If I’m made to do it, it’s much harder’. Or ‘I can do difficult things when I choose, but if someone tells me there’s no choice, then I can’t’. One of them said that the only place he felt he learnt nothing was in his mandatory Maths GCSE resit class. ‘It’s grey’ he said. ‘No one wants to be there’.

Some of them had taken (and passed) GCSEs entirely independently, whilst others had gone to college or had tutors. Some hadn’t done GCSEs at all and had plans to take a different route. Some had failed a GCSE and were retaking. All of them saw themselves as people who were doing things, who were living their life and who had a future.

And that’s what I see as the goal when teenagers stop going to school. Not to get them back ‘on-track’ if that track was the wrong one for them. Not to go through the motions of replicating school. Not to make sure they take GCSEs at the same time as their peers.

The goal is to help them retrieve their sense of themselves as the person in the driving seat of their life, which often seems to get lost in the passage through the school system. To regain their sense of being a person whose choices matter, and who can learn.

When that has been found, then the future becomes possible.

How can you help your teen to do that? That's what I'm talking about in my new webinar, Helping your Neurodivergent Teen to Recover from School. It's recorded. Suitable for parents of all teens who don't fit the system, whether they have a diagnosis or not.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/helping-your-neurodivergent-teen-recover-from-school-tickets-1230238058149?aff=fb1