Do any of you have Forest Schools operating in your woods? We had this as an objective right from the start. However despite multiple conversations, contacts, visits and so forth, we still haven't got a group using the wood.
It seems the different counties have different views on what a Forest School needs (we are on the border of two counties). In our case, one thinks that the absence of running water and toilets is a show-stopper, the other thinks it is just fine to have a wild site.
It also seems that although the County co-ordinators are uniformly enthusiastic and desperate for sites, and at least one of the County co-ordinators is enthusiastic about ours, the communication doesn't seem to get through to the Forest School leaders who might use it and in the meantime are having to use their school gardens. We have meetings, send e-mails and then nothing happens. The local group is offering subsidies to train leaders locally because they are short of leaders, but when I reply that I would like to be considered, I get no respose at all! Yet I should be ideal - years of experience in education (albeit Higher education but still...), own a wood so no access issues, site is apparently suitable at least to one county. It has taken a year since we first made contact, and despite positive noises, no children have been to the wood.
What experiences have you all had of Forest Schools? Do they really all require toilets, running water and a fridge (as one of our Co-ordinators suggested)? How long does it take and how many forms do you have to fill in before you can actually get something happening?
