How Has Forest School Changed Parental Attitudes In The Last Couple Of Years?

Today, I want to answer the question. How has forest school changed parental attitudes in the last couple of years?

Now I would say there has been a monumental shift in parent attitudes to learning in the outdoors following the pandemic as you may well imagine.

But what about before that?

Forest What?

Forest School has been on parent’s radars for sometime, perhaps on occasion unknowingly.

However, Forest School is still a very new learning approach that is still questioned when mentioned.

It can be something parents stumble over from conversations with others or their primary school has decided to conduct some sessions.

For some families this is an incredible moment finding something that fits their idea of the best way to parent.

Then after they’ve been to a session they are sold on the idea after watching how it inspires their child.

They still at this point they may be unable to define it…but they get what it is and how it works and so their attitude to Forest School is positive.

Look At The State Of You! What HAVE You Been Doing?

For other families however, it also comes with drawbacks as what these parents often see is the visual representations of it, such as the mud, or the fire or the dens. For some this can be off putting, right?

When your child comes home stinking of eau de fire. It can make any parent wonder what is this Forest School malarkey and does it have any worth!

And so their attitudes toward it may be less than positive and I completely get that.

Why Be So Damn Hard To Define?

Here’s the problem though. As such the interesting guy that I am, I get asked a lot what I do as a job, to which I respond Forest School.

What do you think their almost robot like response is? What is Forest School? The best time to answer this is when your drunk which I had the fortune to do when I was last back in Mid Wales over Christmas. Who knows what tale came out of my mouth.

Anyway, it’s embarrassing to say, but it truly is difficult to define Forest School is and a lot of practitioners have trouble with it.

How might you, as a parent listening define it? Go on I want you to say it outloud in your mind……It’s quite hard, right.

Who Shall We Blame?

And there sits the fundamental problem. Is it a parent’s fault they don’t understand exactly what Forest School is?

Is it a forest school leaders fault for not selecting the right words to do it justice?

Certainly not, to both.

However it is a key moment that highlights how far, to quickly the Forest School movement has come I suppose.

Too Much, Too Soon

I may have mentioned before but it’s often chucked in for good measure in a lot of places and there’s often a heavy lean toward Forest School lite because as Mark Leather , another academic I want to get on the podcast, says and I agree with;

‘Practitioners and indeed schools are emulating practices without necessarily understanding why they are doing things in certain ways and not others. It has also meant that training of practitioners has been speedily institutionalised, perhaps exacerbating this issue of understanding’ (2018; page 6).

Is this statement to say every Forest School leader is like this..? Not at all. But the ones that are don’t help the cause.

Life Skills? Pah! Nobody Cares About Them Anyway!

You may know I’ve always been Forest School full fat, but its taken me a pandemic to sit, reflect and realize forest school has been poorly explained to parents, even at time myself included, and in some respect has therefore led parents to make their own conclusions thus putting them off.

However, if it had been explained as this child sized, life altering learning style that over a period of a few months can equip them with the life skills they will rely upon later in life, making them ready for whatever it throws at them.

How much more excited and invested are you right now, as a parent?

Whatever comes next out of my mouth your already hooked and your attitude towards Forest School may well be hugely positive.

Perhaps this is when the techno babble should come in.

This whole realization was the very reason behind beginning this daily publishing cycle in which to knock down the barriers of Forest School so it became easy to understand and even easier to witness the benefits.

I think it’s going in that direction but there is more to collapse and rebuild.

A VERY Real Reality

For me Forest School has the very real ability to provide incredible value into families lives unlike anything else I’m aware of.

For those with negative attitudes towards it, due to a lack of understanding on the part of those who are meant to be in the know i.e the Forest School leader. Is, well yes, upsetting.

However I love a challenge to alter these misconceptions.

What About The ‘Early Adopters’?

Returning to the parents that jumped feet first into Forest School also known as the early adopters, forest school has perhaps changed their focus on the importance of the outdoors in children’s lives, right.

In a world that has been radically changing for the last 20 years at least and with children’s wellbeing under attack these parents have seen first hand how the wild calms their child in a seemingly primitive, flicking of a switch.

When coupled with the forest school way of learning, parents like you have seen their child reconnect with themselves perhaps for first time in a long while, along with nature and have began to flourish like nowhere else.

That’s not me saying that but this is on good authority from our parents and parents of other forest schools.

Lessons From Outdoor Past

Is it brand new to know this? Not at all. Knowing how the outdoors impacts on children’s development has been reported, studied and promoted for hundreds of years.

Where did it go skew-whiff?

Who knows without getting philosophical, political or otherwise. This is a family show after all and one that may go that deep one day.

The truth is it has and children have become seen perhaps as cogs in a system expected to spit out repeatable processes. Is the outdoors and playing in that environment any of that?

Absolutely not but it does influence the child development systems that helps in these forced processes, making it all a little easier.

Lessons From Outdoor Present

Parents only have to look back to their childhood and how they would assumptively spend hours playing outside and learning life lessons in making and managing friends, dealing with the unknown, tempering feelings good fear, controlling your body so it wouldn’t get hurt, problem solving a situation and planning ahead all creating mental refreshment if not physical exhaustion. But did you want to go back the next day?

Those early adopting parents see this in their child and this is what has changed their attitude toward Forest School.

A structured way to provide the controlled chaos children absolutely need in a world where they can no longer be that, make mistakes or be seen as competent, valued and unique.

Parents can also see their child in a different context and sometimes learning close up which can be a really heartwarming moment.

Lessons Of Outdoor Future

Yes the fire, the mud and the leaves are still there, but they fall into insignificance for these parents as they see how it all is impacting on their child’s whole development.

Indeed, how they’re finding themselves, when then whole world wants Instagram replicas.

It inspires families so much that they become more than simply customers to a Forest School leader, but friends who willing come week in and week out no matter the weather as they see the proven benefits….and life becomes a little lighter after every visit for everyone involved.

There’s even been a huge shift in the use of the outdoors by those people with additional needs for their physical and mental wellbeing and development. This I will be touching upon in more depth in a few episodes time.

For now though; You’re Just One Session Away?