Made for UK forest schools

Forest school software that works with no signal.

Bookings and payments, registers, risk-benefit, observations and learning journeys, in one app on your phone in the woods. Write the day up as it happens, not 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.

Hazel Hollow Wood Tue 22 Sept

7 attendees2 adults7:2 ratio

No signal, and it's all saved on your phone.

Tue
Ivy's mum booked and paid online and signed the consent form.
8:50
Took the register as they arrived: seven of the eight here, two of us, so we're fine on ratio.
IvyAlfieRowanNell, away
10:10
Six knives went out for whittling by the fire circle, and all six came back in the tin.
10:42
The stream's running high, so we went 1:1 at the crossing and kept the stream play.
11:20
Ivy led the den build today and asked for the bow saw for the first time.
ConfidenceResilience
11:55
Wrote a concern down on the walk back to the car. Only Kate, our DSL, can open it.

Bookings and payments

Your own booking page, and a parents' area under your logo.

Families book and pay online, and every booking goes straight onto the session register.

A booking page with your logo and photos, and a link for each group
A "Book now" button, or the whole booking form, on your own website
Whole terms, single dates and drop-ins, with deposits, family tickets, discount codes and sibling discounts
Card payments go straight to your own Stripe account; cash and bank transfer bookings are free
Waiting lists when a session is full, and your terms and conditions signed as part of booking
A parents' area with your logo: bookings, consents, medical details and the photos you share
Families reply to your emails, and the replies come to you in the app

More about bookings

A forest school's booking page on a phone: where and when, the term and drop-in prices, who to ask, and a note that no account or password is needed.

A real session, on a phone.

The register, the risk-benefit call, the site check, the tools and fire and the learning in the mud, all recorded in the woods with no signal. Here are three moments from a session at Hazel Hollow Wood, our demo forest school.

The register on a phone: each child marked present or absent, with their allergies and medication shown by their name. — The register, allergies and all

Logging a risk change: the stream is up after rain, so the play stays on the shallow bend with one-to-one at the crossing. — Risk-benefit in a tap

The end of the day-log: the site check signed off, a sharp still to count back in before anyone leaves, and the review waiting. — The day, written down as it happened

Everything is saved on your phone first and uploads when you're back in signal. Tools and fire are counted out and back in. A photo of a child without photo consent is never shared. Take the photo, say a sentence as a voice note, and finish the observation later when there's time. Observations land on each child's learning journey, and the whole day becomes one PDF.

Built on the six principles.

Six principles are what separate forest school from a nice walk in a wood. Everything in the app hangs off one of them.

1A long-term processA term at a time: plan, observe, adapt, review.
2A woodland, looked afterYour wood on the daily check, by name.
3Supported riskName the benefit, then the hazard and how you'll manage it.
4Holistic developmentObservations against the FSA's NETA areas, per child.
5Qualified practitionersYour DBS, first aid, quals and CPD travel with you.
6Learner-centredEach group's own charter, and observations shared with families.

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 — a caterpillar, watched closely

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

What forest school leaders say

Built by a forest-school leader who got tired of paper. Comments from forest school leaders on Facebook and Trustpilot, quoted with thanks.

"This app is a game changer for Forest School leaders. To have the ability to plan, write observations, book people on, monitor progression over time and write all your incident reports in one secure space enables me and my team to have more time to deliver…"

— BEING Outdoors CIC, on Trustpilot

"It's brilliant!!! 🤩"

— Gail W. practitioner

"It's the sort of thing that can only be created by those who truly understand the reality of the day to day of a Forest School session. And the more I am using it, the more I am discovering just how much it can help me! Everything is right at my fingertips, literally!"

— Hev N. forest school leader

"Oh.my.spaghettimonster. wow. Just wow."

— Dorka N. practitioner

"I know I'm biased, I helped build it. But I built it because I needed it: I run sessions every week, in real weather, with cold hands, and this is the app I run them on. If it annoys me in the woods, Paul hears about it by tea time."

— Sarah Allington, co-founder, and its most demanding user

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 (whoever runs 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

Solo practitioners

Running your own sessions? You're a forest school 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.

Priced per forest school, never per child.

£8 a month on your own, or £29 for your whole team, with unlimited children, sessions and woods either way, VAT included. 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 solo practitioner running your own sessions.

£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 (cash and bank transfer free; 1% on card payments, plus Stripe's card fee)

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
Safeguarding kept to your DSL, compliance tracked per person, commissioning bodies on report-only
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

Sarah Allington crouched by a small fire in the woods

Paul Allington outdoors, holding an enamel camp mug

Sarah & Paul Allington

Sarah runs the sessions: an FSA-endorsed trainer, out in the woods every week. Paul builds the app: 25 years building software, and a forest school leader too.

More about us

The bits leaders ask first.

Does it really work with no signal?

Yes. The field app stores everything on your device and syncs when you're back in range. You can always see whether your records are saved and uploaded.

Does it follow the FSA's six principles?

Yes. 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 also becomes a PDF, ready if anyone asks to see it.

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 are free on every plan: they go on your register, count in your ratios, and can use the app free to see their sessions and risk assessments. For your team to record what they see under their own names, you need the Team plan (£29 a month flat, VAT included). Their account is free either way, and the same login works at every forest school that adds them.

Is my children's data safe?

Children's data stays inside your forest school, and we never sell or mine it. Safeguarding concerns are visible only to your designated lead. We're a small British company.

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 the rest go on a waiting list. Every confirmed booking goes straight onto the session register. Your terms and conditions are signed as part of booking, and every booking keeps the version the parent saw. Families sign in with a code from their email, on the website or in the app, to see the moments you've shared and keep their bookings, consents and medical details up to date, with your logo and photo at the top. Bookings and payments are included on every plan. Cash and bank transfer bookings cost nothing extra. When a family pays by card through the app, we charge 1% (VAT included), and Stripe's card fee is separate. Your monthly price never climbs with your takings.

What do I need to run it?

Your phone or tablet for the field (the app is on the App Store and Google Play) and any browser for the desk: planning, bookings, children and reports. Help lives inside the app too, next to the page it explains.

Try it on your next session.

Set your forest school up in two minutes. Free for 30 days, no card needed. Not ready? Browse The Clearing for free activity ideas, no account needed.

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