Forest School

“I love everything at Forest School.” Anna (Reception pupil)

Forest School fosters resilient, confident, independent and creative thinkers, just like Anna.

At Ballard, we are really lucky to have such beautiful and varied grounds for everybody to enjoy. We have always embraced outdoor learning and its importance in our children’s lives. We launched our bespoke Forest School in 2018, which has enhanced our children’s learning, development and well-being.

Children generally learn best and remember learning experiences when they ‘own’ their learning. They also love to choose and discover things for themselves. As Forest School enables learners to decide how they wish to spend their time, the children are highly motivated. They learn how to be independent and the power of perseverance and carry this with them back into the classroom and onwards on their learning journey through life.

We have two Forest School environments on our campus; one for Pre-Prep and one for our Lower Prep pupils; from fire-striking, toasting marshmallows, creating forest gardens and fairy kingdoms, sawing, enjoying rivers, bogs, trees and dens, making mud kitchens or picking blackberries for tie-dying, pupils love Forest School and are thriving.