A LOCAL primary school held a special event this month to encourage families and children to get outdoors more for fun and education.
St Malachy’s Primary School Nursery in Castlewellan held its first ever Forest School family event on 17 May in the school’s walled garden. The event was for the 28 children in the school’s Nursery unit and their parents and caregivers.
“The children thoroughly enjoyed spending the morning with their parents out in nature enjoying the beautiful warm weather and most of all having fun,” St Malachy’s nursery teacher Willeen Mooney said.
Mrs Mooney, who recently completed her Level 3 Forest School Leader qualification with the Northern Ireland Forest School Association, organised this event to promote the benefits of outdoor learning on children’s physical and mental well-being.
“The family event was organised to encourage families to get outdoors, learn, and play together,” she said.
“We aim to support, encourage, and develop parental involvement in children’s early learning. We are focused on improving outcomes for children in pre-school by engaging and empowering parents to help them create and sustain positive home learning environments and Forest School Families is another event to raise awareness of the importance of children playing and learning outdoors in nature.”
During the event, parents and children worked together in small groups with a staff leader on various outdoor activities. These included making bird feeders, threading daisies and chalk drawing.
Those in attendance also took part in a minibeast hunt, a colour hunt and a sensory challenge, before joining together for circle time to talk about what they learned.
“The event was well attended with all children having a parent or a family member attending. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the event,” she said. “You could see how happy the children were playing with their parents. There were lots of smiles, laughter and the children gave it a double thumbs up when they were evaluating the activities during circle time.”
This was an extension of some of the work that the school was already doing with its nursery pupils, who take part in some outdoor play every day.
“As part of the Nursery development, we felt that the Forest School approach could enhance the children’s learning and development through a more nature-based approach,” she said.
“We already have a great outdoor play area and have been developing our outdoor learning. We have created a variety of play areas, sensory garden, muddy kitchen, and a sensory footpath to help support the healthy development of the Nursery children.”
The Nursery unit also marks special days throughout the year to help the children learn more about the outdoor world.
“We celebrate World Earth Day, Outdoor Classroom Day and #30 Days Wild in association with the National Trust every year. This year we incorporated a Forest School activity to celebrate these national events, making wildflower seed bombs and planting sunflowers,” Mrs Mooney said.
She said that including Forest School activities into the classroom setting is something that will continue in the future.
“We are only at the beginning of our Forest School journey,” she said.
“We have started Welly Wednesday in the Nursery. Children every Wednesday take part in a planned Forest School activity during their outdoor play either on Nursery, primary school grounds or Castlewellan Forest Park.
Some of the various activities the children have been involved in include planting sunflowers, taking walks in the forest park to observe the changing seasons, making s’mores and creating outdoor art.
Some of the Forest School activities and ethos may also be used with older children in the school in coming years.
“It is hoped that the Forest School approach could be implemented throughout the school as part of whole school development,” Mrs Mooney said.
Mrs Mooney said that she got interested in Forest Schools because she always enjoyed outdoor activities in local forest parks when she was a child.
“I live beside Tollymore Forest Park and have so many memories of walking, playing, and exploring the park with my family. My parents always encouraged me and siblings to play outdoors, making mud pies, making daisy chains, climbing trees, and planting vegetables,” she said.
Mrs Mooney holds a Master of Arts degree in Early Childhood Studies and did her dissertation on the benefit of outdoor play to preschool children. As part of her research, she investigated the Forest School approach. She then took the opportunity to take the Forest School training herself.
She said that although Forest Schools came to Northern Ireland in 2008, they originated in Denmark for children under seven years old.
“Research showed that children who had been attending Forest Schools were arriving at school with strong social skills, the ability to work in groups effectively, high self-esteem and confidence in their own capabilities. All these attributes proved to be an effective foundation that raised academic achievements,” she said.
“Forest School is a child-centred learning process, providing learner inspired, hands-on experiences in the natural environment. It’s creative and can increase a child’s confidence as they problem-solve and learn to manage risks.”
“The Forest School can have a ‘ripple effect’. Children may influence their parents’ attitude to the outdoors through their enthusiasm, knowledge and confidence gained in Forest School activities and this was one of the reasons for holding our Forest School Family event.”
Mrs Mooney said that with Forest Schools, the weather does not stop the outdoor fun. The children are encouraged to bring needed outdoor clothing with them, such as welly boots or sunglasses, depending on the weather.
“We encourage children outside in all weathers because the seasons enhance children’s learning about the ‘World Around Us’: water cycle, evaporation, shadows, farming, planting cycles, wind speed and direction. Even children getting the opportunities to play in the rain, mud, and snow can have therapeutic sensory feedback and have a positive effect on their mental wellbeing,” she said.
The school is looking to get funding or sponsorship to enable them to buy waterproof trousers for the nursery children to use during their outside time on wet weather days.
“If any companies would like to get in touch with the Nursery to sponsor some waterproof clothing for the Nursery children, we would be very grateful, as this is an extra cost for families and the school budget,” Mrs Mooney said.
The school is also in discussions with Newry, Mourne and Down District Council to enable them to get direct access to Castlewellan Forest Park in the future.
“This will allow our children to avail of the wonderful facilities available and extend the Forest School concept, working in conjunction with an Education Officer, to ensure real hands-on lessons take place in the outstanding outdoor space with the vast array of resources the forest park provides,” she said.
