Forest schools flourish as youngsters log off and learn from nature | Schools
After more than a year of bans with restricted access to nature, Magdalena Begh was delighted when her six-year-old daughter came home from the forest school and told her that she had found three rat skeletons. One of them, Alia told her, was "pretty fresh". "These little observations are very important to your learning - it's amazing," says Begh. Since Alia and her nine-year-old sister Hana went to the after-school club Urban Outdoors Adventures in Nature in North London in June, they have been using clay, learning about insects and making campfires, jam and bows and arrows. You are part of a wave of children across the UK who have been attending forest schools since the pandemic began, many since September. Of the more than 200 forest schools surveyed by the Forest School Association (FSA), around two-thirds said that demand for their services had increased since March 2020. Reasons cited were increased awareness of the benefits of being outdoors, particu