Risk-benefit assessments
Most leaders keep their risk-benefit assessments in a ring binder that stays in the car. The Forest School App puts your site, activity and daily RBAs on the phone in your pocket, keeps a short log of the calls you make when conditions change, and records the benefit beside the hazard.
The sector works in three tiers: the standing site assessment for the woodland itself, the activity assessments for the things you do there (fire, tools, climbing, water), and the daily check you make on arrival. The Forest School App holds all three.
Write your fire-circle or whittling RBA properly, once, and keep it in your library. Each time you run a session you stack it on, and the app takes a frozen snapshot, so the copy attached to that day never changes even if you edit the master later.
The wind picks up, a branch comes down, the stream's higher than yesterday. You deal with it first. At the next pause, tap what changed and what you did, and pick when it happened if it was a while ago. A few seconds, with cold hands and no signal. Nothing in the log can be changed afterwards, and each line shows when it happened and when it was written.
Why it's risk-BENEFIT
Anyone can list what might go wrong with a rope swing or an open fire. A risk-benefit assessment also records what the child gains, like the resilience that comes from climbing a tree. That is the third FSA principle, supported risk. Every RBA in the Forest School App has its benefits written down beside the hazards and controls, and the benefit is what makes the case for keeping the fire. Our how-to guide on risk-benefit assessment walks through getting the balance right, and the fire and tool safety guide shows it applied to the two activities leaders worry about most.
Dynamic risk · Bluebell Wood
Just logged
Kept the stream play; the benefit was worth the control.
Each leader reads and signs the stacked assessments on the day, and that sign-off is part of the record. When a session closes, every stacked RBA, frozen as it was on the day, travels out inside the session PDF, right alongside the register, ratios, the weather (go / modify / no-go, with your reason), the dynamic risk log, incidents, tools and fire, and your reflection. The same RBAs you build here are the ones you stack when you plan a session, so the assessment and the plan are never out of step.
All of this runs fully offline. Build your RBAs at the kitchen table, then log dynamic risk in the wood; it all syncs when you're back in range.
Every leader, assistant and volunteer gets a free account. Only the forest school (the provider running the sessions) needs a plan, and one plan covers the whole team. A freelance leader working on their own is on Solo (£8 a month, VAT included); a forest school with staff is on Team (£29 a month flat, VAT included). Try it 30 days free, no card. See full pricing or the full feature list.
RBA questions
No. The copy attached to a past session is a frozen snapshot taken when you ran it. Old sessions stay exactly as you assessed them on the day.
Yes. The dynamic risk log works fully offline: once things are settled, tap what changed and what you did. Each line keeps when it happened and when it was written, and it syncs once you're back in range.
Yes. Every stacked RBA exports inside the session PDF along with the register, ratios, weather decision, incidents, tools and fire, and your reflection: one complete document per session.
Set your forest school up free for 30 days, no card needed. Build your RBAs once and stack them on every session.