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Visiting the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust Forest School session!

Recently we had a really exciting trip to Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust to get our hands dirty at one of their Forest School sessions.
Notts WT Forest School Session 1

Thanks to players of People’s Postcode Lottery, children from around Nottingham have been given a wonderful opportunity to attend the woodland workshops and really get to grips with experiencing wildlife up close and personal. It is important to get children interacting with nature from an early age, as a connection with nature is proven to have both physical and mental health benefits, which we are fully on board with! During our visit, we were fortunate enough to be part of a group involving children who had behavioural problems and difficulties engaging with their everyday schoolwork.

Although the weather was still quite chilly, everyone was really excited to get outdoors and get exploring on the first Forest School session of the season. Expert Outdoor Education Officer Lynn Victor was in charge and had put together a lot of interesting tasks for the children to work on. Six children were attending the session, all accompanied by a carer from their respective schools.

Notts WT Forest School Session 2

Practical tasks were the order of the day, and we got to try our hand at making necklaces, creating a swing, cutting wood and climbing trees! It was interesting to see the developing relationships between our education officers and the children as the session progressed, and also note the difference in the children’s behaviour when they weren’t inside the classroom. With good behaviour, the children will earn the right to have a campfire on site – which means toast and marshmallows in the following sessions!

There are 10 Wildlife Trusts across the UK who have been awarded PPL funding to fulfil these important sessions, and each Trust works with a wide range of different schools in urban areas with children from a multitude of backgrounds.

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