Creating a cohesive community at a forest school field trip

In keeping with the university’s ‘Belong at Brighton’ ethos, year one students studying our Early Childhood Education and Care BA(Hons) were recently treated with a visit to a local forest school.

The field trip was a great activity to allow students to develop a closer comradery and a sense of a learning community while providing an opportunity to engage with Forest School pedagogy, used to create learning activities for young children within such a setting.

The students worked collaboratively to build a campfire, toured the facilities to observe how the forest school environment was created for children within the toddler and pre-school groups, as well as identified how the six forest school principals were integrated into the practice of the practitioners.

Course leader Dr Lesleann Whiteman said: “Active learning experiences like this ensures our students are able to develop attributes such as; confidently communicating with staff and children at a setting while collaboratively working as part of a team to complete the activities for the day.”

The students had a great time and really appreciated a fun way to bond, with one group saying on reflection:

“Between munching on s’mores and trudging through the mud we successfully bonded as a team while also learning the attributes these skills give to a child. Not only have we learned the benefits behind the use of forest school for children’s development, but we have also learned skills that we did not have previously such as learning to build and light fires.”

Interested in our Early Childhood Education and Care BA(Hons)? Find out more about education studies degrees on the University of Brighton website.