What forest school actually is
The six principles of forest school
Six principles, agreed by the UK forest-school community and set out by the Forest School Association, are what separate forest school from a nice walk in a wood. This is what each one asks of you, and how we help.
Most forest school software covers the register and the money. We started with what a leader is doing under the trees, and with the six things that make it forest school rather than childcare outdoors. Everything in the app hangs off one of the six, including the two that are hardest to turn into a form: supported risk, and following the child.
1. The Long-Term Principle
“Forest School is a long-term process of frequent and regular sessions in a woodland or natural environment, rather than a one-off visit. Planning, adaptation, observations and reviewing are integral elements of Forest School.”Forest School Association
Regular sessions in the same wood, across the seasons. Planning, observation, adaptation and review are the process itself, going round each week. A relationship with the place and with the group takes time to build.
How we help. A term lays down its whole block of sessions in one go, and each session's review carries forward into the next one's plan, so last week's "what I'd change" is sitting in front of you while you plan this week. Our guide to planning a session walks through the cycle properly.
2. The Nature Principle
“Forest School takes place in a woodland or natural wooded environment to support the development of a relationship between the learner and the natural world.”Forest School Association
The learners build a connection with the natural world, and you look after the place while you use it. The principle asks for sustainable management of the wood and an eye on your own impact.
How we help. Each wood carries its emergency plan, readable offline under the trees. It also carries its survey, the specific things in it worth knowing about, such as the leaning ash by the gate, the stream crossing that floods or the badger sett, each with its own inspection history. Flag one and it appears on your daily site check by name, with what to watch for. A management plan records whose land it is, when the trees were last surveyed, and what's resting and why.
3. The Risk Principle
“Forest School offers learners the opportunity to take supported risks appropriate to the environment and to themselves.”Forest School Association
Tools, fire, climbing, the stream when it's higher than last week, taken on with support so that children learn to judge risk for themselves. This is risk-benefit, not risk elimination. It's often the first principle to go: the fire stops happening, one cautious term at a time.
How we help. Every risk assessment names the benefit before the hazard. The dynamic risk log records the calls you make on the day ("the stream is high, here's what we changed, here's why we still went"), so you have a record of the judgements you made. Tools and fire are logged on the day too: each tool issued and returned, the fire lit and out, and anything still unaccounted for flagged before you leave the site. See writing a risk-benefit assessment and our free risk assessment templates.
4. The Holistic Learning Principle
“Forest School aims to promote the holistic development of all those involved, fostering resilient, confident, independent and creative learners.”Forest School Association
It's about who a child is becoming, which is a slower and less tidy thing to notice than whether they can name a leaf.
How we help. Observations tag the FSA's own NETA areas (confidence, creativity, resilience, independence and wellbeing) as you notice them in the wood, one tap each. Baseline to latest shows how far a child has come, and the family gets a learning journey. See observations & learning journeys.
5. The Leadership Principle
“Forest School is run by qualified Forest School practitioners, who continuously maintain and develop their professional practice.”Forest School Association
A minimum of an accredited Level 3 Forest School qualification, and a commitment to keep developing your practice: continuing professional development, and the habit of reflecting on your sessions.
How we help. Your qualifications, DBS, first aid and CPD live on your record, not on any one organisation's, so they travel with you to every forest school you work with, and you never re-enter them. Expiries are chased before they lapse, and you have a shareable, verified passport page for anyone who asks. Freelance? Start with the freelance leader's kit.
6. The Community Principle
“Forest School uses a range of learner-centred processes to create a community for development and learning.”Forest School Association
Following the child's interests and choices rather than an adult agenda, and building a community that learns together, practitioners included.
How we help. An observation can carry the child's own words, kept verbatim and set apart as a quotation: "It's a bug hotel and the woodlice are the guests."
What a child wants to do next becomes an interest. It lands on the plan for their next session, and when you build the week around it, their record shows the thread from "she wanted a roof on the den" to "we built the roof". Each group also keeps its own charter, the rules the children agreed, in their words, readable in the wood.
If writing would slow you down, record the child saying it and the words are written out for you.
The six, inside the app
Sign in and you'll find a six principles page of your own, with what your records show against each one. How many sessions you've run this year and how many have no review. What's surveyed in your wood and what's due a look. Whether your team's first aid is in date. Every line links to the place you'd go to do something about it.
Nothing is scored and nothing is red. If sessions are missing their reviews, the page says so every time you sign in.
The six principles and inspection
The six principles describe good practice. Nobody inspects you against them, and no app can make your practice principled.
For inspection, read what Ofsted and the FSA look for. Running forest school properly produces the records anyone is likely to ask you for.