Forest School & Outdoor Learning

Due to our wonderful location, we make the most of our surroundings which involves taking our learning outside as much as possible, whether in our playground, Shipley Country Park or at local nature reserves. We are very proud of our Forest School provision. We love to use the natural environment to support learning which involves weekly forest school sessions with children from Reception to Year 6. We think it is very important to ensure that children throughout the school have the opportunities to learn through exploration and taking risks.  Classes from Horsley CE Primary School have also attended Forest School days at Mapperley, through our federation and strong links with them.

We use Mapperley Wood Nature Reserve for our Forest School sessions, which is owned by Derbyshire Wildlife Trust. We also work with Derbyshire Wildlife Trust Education Officers at Woodside Farm Nature Reserve: with 3 visits a year for all classes to explore the flora and fauna, address environmental issues and to further develop Geography and Science knowledge and skills. We are also involved in The Young People's Forest at The Mead with The Woodland Trust and were  delighted to be the first school to plant trees there.

We view all participants at Forest School as:

• Equal, unique and valuable
• Entitled to experience appropriate risk and challenge
• Entitled to make choices, and to initiate and to drive their own learning and development
• Entitled to develop positive relationships with themselves and others
• Entitled to experience regular success
• Competent to explore and discover
• Entitled to develop a positive relationship with their natural world.

Miss Willis is our Forest School Leader, with a Level 3 Forest School qualification. Our Forest School curriculum includes Design & Technology, 3D art, PSHE (Personal, Social Health Education) and SMSC (Social, Moral, Spiritual and Cultural).