Ground Rules
Ground rules
Arrive promptly at 10am for drop off sessions so your child does not miss the morning circle and safety announcements. For family sessions please ensure you arrive no later than 10:30am.
In family sessions, parents are responsible for their children and must know their whereabouts at all times.
Children should inform the facilitator before climbing a tree.
Take care of the equipment, use tools in the tool area and return them to the facilitators when you are done.
Children are asked to remember the agreed boundaries and don’t go beyond them.
Look after yourself and others.
Follow our good practices for protecting the ecosystem, including:
No pick no lick. Pick only plants that are in abundance, forage only with facilitator’s guidance.
Take care of the woodland and wildlife.
Leave no trace. Inform facilitator when you pick up litter.
Be mindful of other park users and dogs off leash. Stand looking away from the dog, with arms forming an x over your chest.
What to expect from our sessions
Free play is integral to all of our sessions. Forest School sessions are not a formal lesson or bushcraft skills session. Although our Forest School sessions incorporate adult-led, age appropriate learning elements to facilitate exploration of nature and relationship building within a community of children and families, we always allow plenty of space and time for self-directed learning and free play.
We ask that adults avoid interfering in free play and only interupt play when necessary (for safety reasons) or when invited into play by the children (ie: when a child asks for help, asks to you look at something, etc).
We encourage risk taking play and trust children to know their limits when it comes to rough and tumble play and risky activities. This includes climbing trees, playing with sticks and play fighting. Boundaries around this type of play will be discussed with each group attending our sessions. If you are worried about your child in any situation, please ask for support from a facilitator or Curious by Nature team member.
“Stop for real” is a method we try to teach children, to have the words to stop the play if they have had enough. For sessions attended by parents and carers, if you believe your child wants the play to stop please check in with them and encourage them to use the words “stop for real” with their peers, when they are unhappy with the play.
If an adult needs to intervene and stop play, please do so calmly and respectfully. In situations where children have surpassed their limits, are putting themselves or others in real danger or where “stop for real” has not been effective, we ask that parents/ carers calmly approach the situation and ask for support from the facilitator or Curious by Nature team when needed. We trust parents/ carers to know what is best for their child, which could involve a group or private chat after an incident, a cooling off period or an adult being nearer during play throughout the session.
We ask adults to approach conflicts between children (or other adults) with empathy, active listening and directness, avoiding judgement, attack, blaming or shaming.