What can traditional schools learn from forest schools?

Forest schools exist around the world, and at their core, they are simply schooling that takes place outdoors. These schools focus on connecting learning within nature and encouraging education through play. For many people, forest schools are seen as a way to build a deep relationship with the world around us, and to give children a more hands-on experience of school.

Research shows that forest schools aid cognitive function, motor coordination, balance, and wellbeing in children. Part of the reason is that forest schools emphasise activities that build children’s confidence, promote regular movement, and instil resilience from an early age.

With this in mind, how can traditional schools bring the benefits of the outdoors, indoors? Let’s take a look at what institutions can learn from forest schools.

Connection to nature and sustainability

Perhaps the strongest takeaway for traditional schools from forest schools is the connection to nature and sustainability. Forest schools purposefully take place outside so students can form a relationship with nature. They spend most of the day studying wildlife, planting trees, observing insects, and seeing first-hand the delicate balance of habitats. This interaction builds empathy among students, which makes them more likely to care about sustainability.

Research confirms that the more time we spend in nature, the more likely we are to have pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours. This is especially important for young people who will lead many of the decisions and efforts around caring for the planet in the future.

For traditional schools then, you can mirror the connection to nature by spending time with students outdoors. You could create a class garden on the school grounds, where students can grow plants and vegetables, and have lessons in the space. The garden can also be somewhere to teach about water conservation, composting, and pollination, to tie themes of sustainability into nature and where students can see scientific processes like these in action.

Field trips to national parks, nature reserves or community farms are ideal too. Children can discover nature in their local communities, learn about biodiversity, and understand how nature is cared for and threats to it in the current climate.

Read more about helping your students connect with nature.

Experiential engagement

Forest schools are all about the environment and how students engage with it. Students engage in hands-on activities like building shelters, identifying plants, and tracking animal behaviour. This type of learning helps develop children’s practical skills, as well as enhance their problem solving and critical thinking.

In a more traditional school, you can take inspiration from this hands-on approach and take students to a space where they can observe plants and animals directly. By putting students in the context of what they’re learning about, they can witness real-world applications of scientific concepts, which makes learning more meaningful and memorable.

Get inspired with these primary science experiments for the classroom.

Child-centred learning

At forest schools, children are empowered to explore their individual interests and to learn at their own pace. The idea is that they follow their natural curiosity, while teachers serve as facilitators, supporting students instead of implementing rigid lesson plans. Students therefore tend to learn through trial and error at forest schools.

While traditional schools have more fixed curriculums, you can still make space for child-centred learning through personalisation. That means letting students choose topics for research or projects that interest them, and prompting them to ask questions about areas they don’t know within those interests. You can also tailor different subjects towards the interests that children have shown you, making sure that they recognise the scope and diversity of the things that grasp their attention.

Child-centred learning can be as simple as giving students more choice in the classroom. For example, offering them a selection of books to read for assignments, or allowing students to curate how the classroom is set up for a particular lesson. When students have more autonomy, they feel more in control of their learning, and are more likely to be motivated and willing to make mistakes in the pursuit of knowledge.

Read more about how to introduce personalised learning to your curriculum.

Holistic development

Holistic development takes into consideration students’ emotional, social, and physical formation, not just their academic success. In forest schools, holistic development is tied to experiential learning, where students constantly move in, engage with, and react to their environment, fueling more dynamic growth.

For instance, forest schools may ask students to work together in groups to create bridges from natural materials. If the bridge collapses, students have to reassure one another, assess the durability of their resources, and rethink their approach. The process teaches them emotional regulation, persistence, and good communication.

There are plenty of opportunities to foster holistic development in traditional schools. Physical activity is a great starting point as it promotes physical health and social interaction. You could ask students in a history class to reenact a significant event, or in a maths class get students to solve equations via an outdoor scavenger hunt.

It’s also worthwhile to make spaces for mindfulness – guided nature walks, meditation sessions, and journaling mean students can reflect on their emotions and cultivate their self awareness.

Find out more about how to develop your students emotional regulation.

Independence and risk-taking

Forest schools encourage students to make their own decisions, to take measured risks, and to learn from the outcome. Doing so makes children more independent and boosts their self-esteem. It also gives them vital life skills, especially in an outdoor setting, because they know how to navigate nature and be savvy decision makers.

Over in traditional schools, you can shape the same level of independence by asking students to design their own experiments in science. They could hypothesise how variables like temperature and pressure affect chemical reactions, and then carry out experiments (with some adult supervision) to take intellectual risks. Similarly, they could use 3D printers, woodworking equipment, and basic robotics kits to build prototypes for problems in the school. Their prototype might have issues, and they may have to refine it, but they learn that they are accountable for its progress.

Creative arts and performance are ideal for emotional risk-taking too. You could ask students to write and perform their own play, or present artwork to their classmates – this aids independent self-expression and taking creative risks.

Learn how to develop your students’ learning autonomy.

A leaf out of the alternative schooling book

Forest schools are part of progressive education models, and there’s a lot to take away from them. Traditional schools don’t have to do a total copy-paste of the structure, but there is an opportunity to draw inspiration from forest schools’ emphasis on natural elements and child autonomy. The result is happier, healthier students with more holistic learning experiences.