Made for UK forest schools 🌿

Forest school software that works with no signal.

Bookings and payments, registers, risk-benefit, observations and learning journeys. One app for the whole session, on your phone, in the woods. No more writing the day up at nine o'clock at night from a notebook that got rained on.

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30 days free · no card · never per child.

Download on the App Store Get it on Google Play
  • Works offline
  • Built by a practitioner
  • Built on the six principles
  • Your data stays yours

Booking tools weren't built for the woods.

You didn't train as a forest-school leader to wrestle a paper register in the rain or lose an observation to a soggy notebook. The booking apps badge themselves "forest school" but stop at payments and registers. The nursery systems own the indoor EYFS write-ups. Nobody covers the bit that actually happens under the trees: the risk-benefit call, the dynamic site check, the tools and fire, the learning in the mud. That's the whole of the Forest School app.

What forest school actually is

Built on the six principles. All six.

Six principles are what separate forest school from a nice walk in a wood. Everything in the app hangs off one of them — including the two most software quietly drops.

  1. 1

    A long-term process

    Regular sessions across the seasons — plan, observe, adapt, review, round and round. Not a taster day.

    How we help A term lays down its whole block at once, and each review lands in the next session's plan.

  2. 2

    A woodland, looked after

    A real relationship with a real wood — and the duty to care for the place while you're using it.

    How we help Survey your wood: that leaning ash goes on the daily check by name, with what to watch for.

  3. 3

    Supported risk

    Fire, tools, the stream when it's high — taken on with support, so risk becomes judgement.

    How we help Every assessment names the benefit before the hazard. That's how the fire stays.

  4. 4

    Holistic development

    The whole child — resilient, confident, independent, creative. Not a curriculum box.

    How we help Tap an observation against the FSA's NETA areas, in the wood, gloves on. Distance travelled, per child.

  5. 5

    Qualified practitioners

    Level 3 and up, still learning — CPD and the reflective habit that goes with it.

    How we help Your DBS, first aid, quals and CPD are yours — they travel to every forest school you work with.

  6. 6

    Learner-centred

    Following the child's interests, and a community that learns together — practitioners included.

    How we help Observations go to families as they happen. The Clearing shares what worked, risk assessment attached.

What each principle asks of you

A child crouched on the forest floor, digging beside an old saucepan
tools out, worms found
A well-used mud kitchen among the trees, pans and potion bottles ready
the mud kitchen, open for business
A caterpillar on a piece of bark, watched closely by a child
today's observation, one tap to keep

Real sessions at Nature of Learning forest school in Essex — photography used with their kind permission.

Everything the trees need recording

Made for the forest-school layer the others ignore.

Works offline, syncs itself

Every register, risk note, observation and incident is saved to your phone the instant you tap. Walk back into signal and it uploads on its own, with no more "did that actually save?".

Dynamic risk-benefit in seconds

Tap the hazard, tap what you did about it, keep the benefit. The third principle in five seconds: how you say yes to the stream when it's high, rather than cancelling it.

Tools & fire, all accounted for

Knives issued and returned, fire lit and gone cold. The Forest School app flags anything left unreconciled before you leave site, so nothing sharp goes home in a rucksack.

Photos that respect consent

A child without photo consent simply can't be photographed: the camera won't open. The rule is built in and checked on both ends, not a box you might forget on a busy morning.

Learning that grows with the child

Quick voice or text observations against whole-child development (physical, social, emotional, cognitive, language) tied to each child's journey across the term.

The whole day, in one tap

Every session becomes a tidy PDF: register, ratios, weather decision, risks, incidents and reflections. Yours to keep, to share with a parent, or to hand to anyone who asks.

See it in action

A real session, the way the app sees it.

No stock screenshots — just three moments from a Thursday in the woods: the register that's already filled, the risk call made on the day, and the record that files itself.

The register fills itself
Risk-benefit in a tap
The day, written down

Families, sorted

Parents book in. The register fills itself.

Share one link and families reserve their child's place: no app, no account, just their email. You set the spaces; it waitlists the rest automatically. And because a confirmed booking is the register, the children who booked are already there when you open the session in the woods, with no re-typing a list and no second system to reconcile.

Parents get a passwordless portal of their own to manage bookings, keep allergies and consents up to date, and see the moments you've shared from their child's day.

See how forest school booking software works →

Plan → deliver → review

Three steps, the way you already work.

  1. 1

    Plan it warm

    Set up your sites, children and reusable risk-benefit assessments once, at the kitchen table. Stack the right assessments onto each session so they ride along into the field.

  2. 2

    Run it in the field

    Open today's session, confirm the register, and capture as you go (risks, observations, incidents, tools and fire) entirely offline, one big tap at a time, gloves on.

  3. 3

    Review & share

    Reflect on how it went, export a clean record for your files, and watch each child's learning build week on week, feeding straight into next session's plan.

From practitioners, for practitioners

The Clearing: activity ideas, free to take.

A shared library of forest-school activities — crafts, bushcraft, fire, seasonal nature — each with its steps, kit list and a risk-benefit assessment you can plan straight into a session. Free, no account needed to browse.

Nature · Spring Bug hotel building Build a five-star minibeast hotel from pallets, bricks, pine cones and hollow stems — then survey the guests over the following weeks. the Forest School app team Craft · Summer Hapa zome leaf printing Hammer-printing: fold flowers and leaves into cloth and tap — the pigments transfer as perfect prints. Loud, energetic, and the results look gallery-worthy. the Forest School app team Craft Clay woodland faces Press a handful of clay onto a tree trunk and sculpt a face for it — the fastest route into imaginative play there is, and every tree ends up with a personality. the Forest School app team

Browse The Clearing Take what you need, leave one behind.

Why the Forest School app

Trust is the whole point.

A leader only puts the paper down when they truly believe the digital record is safe with no signal. So that's what the Forest School app is built around: your work is saved on your device first, every single time, and you can always see at a glance that it's stored and uploaded.

Safeguarding concerns stay locked to your designated lead, never visible to general staff, never to us. Children's data stays inside your forest school and is never sold or mined.

Built by a forest-school practitioner who got tired of paper.

Five forest-school leaders playing whittled whistles together at sunset
the people it's built for

Free for practitioners

Your account is free. The forest school pays.

The Forest School app is free for the people doing the work. Only the forest school (the provider running the sessions) needs a subscription, and one plan covers the whole team.

Always free

Practitioners

Every practitioner gets a free account to manage themselves: profile and compliance (DBS, first aid, qualifications), shared to every forest school you work for. They bring you into their sessions by adding you to the team — free for you, whichever plan they're on.

Subscribes

Forest schools

The forest school is the billing account: £8 a month if you work on your own, or £29 a month flat once you're managing a team. VAT is included either way — and so are unlimited children, sessions and woods, on both. Never priced per child.

You're both

Sole-trader providers

Running your own provision? You're a provider in your own right — a one-person organisation, £8 a month (VAT included) after a free 30-day trial (no card). Take on staff later and you move to Team; the same login still works free at any forest school that invites you.

Simple, flat pricing

Never per child. Ever.

£8 a month if you work on your own, £29 a month flat once you've a team, with unlimited children, sessions and woods either way. VAT is included, so the price on the page is the price. Start free for 30 days, no card.

Practitioners

Your own account — as a leader, assistant or volunteer.

Free

  • Your own free account
  • Profile & compliance (DBS, first aid)
  • See the sessions you're on, plans & risk assessments
  • Free at every forest school you join

The forest school you work for adds you to its sessions.

Solo

A sole-trader provider running your own provision.

£8inc VAT / month

  • One leader — you do the recording
  • Unlimited volunteers: on your register, and connected free with the app to see their sessions & risk assessments
  • Unlimited children, sessions & woods
  • Offline field app, photos & PDF records
  • Parent bookings & payments (flat 1% when we collect for you)

Want your team recording their own observations & photos? Upgrade to Team anytime.

Start free
For a team

Team

A forest school where the whole team records.

£29inc VAT / month

One flat price for your whole forest school — however many of you are recording

  • Everything in Solo, woods included
  • Every staff member records under their own name — logins, roles & permissions
  • DSL safeguarding wall
  • Staff compliance tracking
  • Commissioning-body access
  • Volunteers still connect free
Start free

The price on the page is the price — VAT included, nothing added at checkout. Cancel anytime, and your records stay yours. Full pricing & who pays →

Questions, answered plainly

The bits leaders ask first.

Does it really work with no signal?

Yes. That's the point. The field app stores everything on your device and syncs when you're back in range. You'll always see whether your records are saved and uploaded, so you never have to wonder.

Does it follow the FSA's six principles?

That's what it's built on. The long-term plan–observe–adapt–review cycle, supported risk through risk-benefit, holistic development tracked across confidence, creativity, resilience, independence and wellbeing, and your own qualifications and DBS kept current. Each session becomes a tidy PDF as a by-product — so if anyone ever asks to see one, it's already there.

Do I need a card to try it?

No. You get 30 days free with no card. Add one only if you decide to stay, and cancel any time before then with nothing to pay.

Can my assistants and volunteers use it?

Yes — volunteers never cost anything, on any plan: on your register, counted in your ratios, and connected free with the app to see their sessions and risk assessments. For your team to record what they see under their own names, that's the Team plan (£29 a month flat, VAT included). Their account is free either way, and the same login follows them to every forest school that adds them.

Is my children's data safe?

Children's data stays inside your forest school, safeguarding concerns are visible only to your designated lead, and we never sell or mine it. British-made and careful with children's data by design.

Can parents book their child in?

Yes. Share one link and families reserve a place with just their email: no app, no account. You set the spaces and it waitlists the rest, and every confirmed booking drops straight onto the session register, so there's no separate list to chase. Parents get a passwordless portal to manage their bookings, consents and medical details. Bookings and payments are included on every plan, and when you take money through the app it's a flat 1% (VAT included) only when we collect for you — never revenue-based pricing, and free and offline payments never incur it.

What do I need to run it?

Your phone for the field — the app is on the App Store and Google Play — and any browser for the back-office: planning, children, reports. A dedicated Windows field app is available for offline use on a tablet too.

Get out of the notebook and into the woods.

Set your forest school up in two minutes. Free for 30 days, no card needed.

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Download on the App Store Get it on Google Play