Information for schools
Bunker Bushcraft Forest School
A Forest School and Outdoor Education Company for Families, Schools, Nurseries and Pre Schools.
Forest School is a child-centred inspirational learning process, that offers opportunities for holistic growth through regular sessions. It is a long-term program that supports play, exploration and supported risk taking. It develops confidence and self-esteem through learner inspired, hands-on experiences in a natural setting.
Forest School has a developmental ethos shared by thousands of trained practitioners around the world, who are constantly developing their learning styles and skills to support new and imaginative learners. Its roots reach back to the open-air culture, friluftsliv, or free air life, seen as a way of life in Scandinavia where Forest School began. It arrived in the UK in 1993 and has grown from strength to strength since then.
Learn more about the History of Forest School in the UK.
The process helps and facilitates more than knowledge-gathering, it helps learners develop socially, emotionally, spiritually, physically and intellectually. It creates a safe, non-judgemental nurturing environment for learners to try stuff out and take risks. Forest School inspires a deep and meaningful connection to the world and an understanding of how a learner fits within it. Our approach to risk means that learners constantly expand on their abilities by solving real-world issues, building self-belief and resilience. We believe that risk is more than just potential for physical harm, but a more holistic thing, there are risks in everything we do, and we grow by overcoming them. Forest School therefore, helps participants to become, healthy, resilient, creative and independent learners.
There is lots of research out there to support the outcomes of Forest School, but we know that it isn't just the educational outcomes and research that matter, our learners and leaders love it too!
We can design you a programme to suit the needs of your school and learner requirements. The programme can be during the school day or as an after school activity, fitting into your term times.
Each session lasts 90 minutes; a full program of what is available can be provided. The program is designed for a maximum of 20 students at any given time.
Green space at schools can sometimes be an issue; therefore you can come to us at our woodland. We do insist that the School conducts a pre-visit to the site to discuss its safe use, review our current risk assessment and have a look at our site facilities such as toilets and hand washing stations. Alternatively, I can deliver my Bushcraft Lessons in a much smaller space than you would imagine and I can come to view a suggested area at your school.
I can design and provide a fire circle at your school that will be central to my instruction, this can either be a permanent structure in the form of logs as seats with a central wooden fire pit, or a temporary feature with stools as seats and portable fire pit that will be erected each week.
If your chosen area is remote from the main school buildings, communications will be maintained by either a current school system or by 2-way radio system provided by myself.
The program includes a range of Bushcraft fundamentals including making and using tools, flora and fauna identification, safely starting fires using primitive and modern fire lighting techniques and wilderness cooking.
Bushcraft does not recognise natures boundaries, whether it be Spring, Summer, Autumn or Winter, Bushcraft is practiced 365 days of the year. Bushcraft and the skills learnt work hand in hand and can easily cross over with current Duke of Edinburgh Awards.