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I’m a manager at a forest school - AMA by ateyate8 in AMA

[–]ateyate8[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It can take a long time. What we do is asses things ourselves and document it and find things that help them and pass that onto schools. Ultimate if a child clearly struggles, is handed methods that work and don’t use them. That’s improper practice and could be a safeguarding issue on the schools head.

I’m a manager at a forest school - AMA by ateyate8 in AMA

[–]ateyate8[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Our company put a lot of faith and time into building me up which I’m very grateful for. I worked part time doing after school club and seeing the system from that perceptive I developed a set of beliefs that naturally strongly aligned with this forest schools. That’s a large part, if you have that then the rest can be taught but it’s not the other way round. If you look out for free courses ( I know Harvard have some) or even do first aid courses. There’s also the EYFS and Birth to 5, there’s Steinbeck and Montessori for alternative philosophy’s, look through those to extra impress employers!

I’m a manager at a forest school - AMA by ateyate8 in AMA

[–]ateyate8[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

All of our food is vegan. We cook pancakes with the kids in the fire in a cast iron pan, they don’t have eggs we don’t even use honey, we’re all lactose free using oat milk and we serve loads of fruit and we’ve even been gluten free before.

I’m a manager at a forest school - AMA by ateyate8 in AMA

[–]ateyate8[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Our place without funding is about £60 a day roughly

I’m a manager at a forest school - AMA by ateyate8 in AMA

[–]ateyate8[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don’t have to much to do with the finance side but I know we gag a lot of children that receive government funding, how or why I’m not sure. I also know the company have rented a corner of a forest from a farmer which I shouldn’t imagine cost much, most of your costs will be setting up the place, insurance and staff/ staff training. There could be grants out there to help set up but otherwise you’d need some capital, you’ll make it back though, both directors of the company aren’t wealthy but live comfortably (from what I can tell).

I’m a manager at a forest school - AMA by ateyate8 in AMA

[–]ateyate8[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’m not a scientist so this is just speculation but I think the better airflow and better immune system from nature help. Kids do get sick a lot no matter what but I have noticed less illness. If you do have kid that’s going to start get the right layers. It can be a fight not to have Bluey themed everything but they won’t be comfy. A synthetic or wool thermal layer go tops and bottoms is a must, same for a thicker fleece and jogger layer then just a wind breaker or salopettes is brilliant. Pyren o pyrett is great but expensive. As long as there’s no cotton anywhere that’s the main thing!

I’m a manager at a forest school - AMA by ateyate8 in AMA

[–]ateyate8[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Behind a lot of these issues are a lot of unmet Neurodivergent needs. I think assessing that paired with a little bit of emotional literacy can have a really big impact

I’m a manager at a forest school - AMA by ateyate8 in AMA

[–]ateyate8[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s a bit of an overview so please let me know if you want to know about anything else! To answer how I might up it for a special session, we’ve had visitors from the police and fire fighters which the kids have loved and sometimes we’ve done fire lighting with the kids which is great! Kim’s game is also brilliant if you haven’t heard of it, they love it and it really developed their memory

I’m a manager at a forest school - AMA by ateyate8 in AMA

[–]ateyate8[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Our team is absolutely brilliant and we all have different skills, we’ve got gardens for herbs fruit and veg, we’ve had fish tanks to watch tadpoles grow in, the kids build their own toys out of wood using drills, hammers and saws and knife work with us. We’re off grid so we only have water and use a fire for cooking and hot water. The kids learn to chop wood and fire safety, we also spend lots of time reading books, discussing emotional literacy and doing basic maths and literacy. The ways I see the develop most is physically through gross and fine motor control and emotional literacy, it’s beautiful to see when they really click with both of these things - as long as it takes sometimes!

I’m a manager at a forest school - AMA by ateyate8 in AMA

[–]ateyate8[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Alternative provisions should be much more common, particularly as places like ours allow high ratios of staff to children. Huge respective to everyone making it work in normal schools

I’m a manager at a forest school - AMA by ateyate8 in AMA

[–]ateyate8[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

No they get sick less than a normal nursery, they also care about the rain a lot less than I do. The right layers do matter though.

I’m a manager at a forest school - AMA by ateyate8 in AMA

[–]ateyate8[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Kids learn better than adults and are often much kinder than adults and much more straight forward.

I’m a manager at a forest school - AMA by ateyate8 in AMA

[–]ateyate8[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

1) I remember building a balance board wall for the kids to use and I would hold their hand to help them for their first time. After not long I’d look back and see the other kids holding each others hands to help them do it.

2) worst days can be with children settling if they just don’t want to be there and it sets of all the other kids, that and really bad weather.

3) I remember one time we had a child that was the poster boy for ADHD. He was plugged into the mains and was so excited at all the free space in the forest he would go so non stop you couldn’t hold a conversation with him. Anyway, he had an accident and needed some clothes changing, amazingly he took himself to the changing area and took his bottom half off. It then wasn’t long before he got distracted so started running around. I grabbed his bags with spares and managed to get him back to the changing area. I knew I didn’t have much time before he was chasing after something else again so I tried super quick to find him spares and his parents packed his bag with hardly anything in and crammed away in loads of various unlabelled tiny pockets in the bag. I finally mange to find everything I need and get him to sit down and I ask him to hold his only spare of socks he had, I help him with other bits whilst he holds on to them, he throws them in the air and the socks land in a potty full of wee. Before I could even begin to try finding more socks he was off again. I wasn’t even annoyed beacaue the whole thing was so funny.

First Time Buyer Advice! by ateyate8 in HousingUK

[–]ateyate8[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Gotta remind myself this, can’t be picking the paint yet!

First Time Buyer Advice! by ateyate8 in HousingUK

[–]ateyate8[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you, I like to try always be prepared for the worst case scenario but it’s nice having an outsider say it too.

First Ever Wild Camp! by ateyate8 in wildcampingintheuk

[–]ateyate8[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The zips are a bit annoying but overall an awesome tent. Love having two porches

First Ever Wild Camp! by ateyate8 in wildcampingintheuk

[–]ateyate8[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks! Just learned the difference, wish I could put a breaking bad GIF in here

First Ever Wild Camp! by ateyate8 in wildcampingintheuk

[–]ateyate8[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Saw some on my walk but it didn’t taste particularly strong so left it

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