Wild your child!

It's common knowledge that spending time in nature is beneficial for everybody, especially for children, and the Wildlfe Trust's recent initiative, Every Child Wild, aims to inspire outdoor adventures.

 

Kent Wildlife Trust's Forest School project has been working toward this goal since 2011, delivering programmes to school groups at our beautiful ancient woodland site near Canterbury.

Some of our recent achievements include:
 

  • Engaging over 1000 people with nature
  • Delivery of six-week, or longer, programmes for school groups
  • Outreach programmes around the county
  • Developing new sites in West Kent and with partner organisations
  • Delivering Forest Skills programmes for adults, with opportunities for people with a variety of mental health and social issues
  • Teaching staff CPD workshops – Forest School and outdoor education
  • Forest School evaluation, in partnership with Canterbury Christ Church University

 

The Forest School team have a programme in place of Family Forest Skills events in the school holidays. Families can join in with fun bushcraft activities in the woods, making and lighting fires, shelter building and using tools to make natural materials.

We also offer Forest School based birthday parties – what a great way to spend a birthday.

Forest School takes place all year round, in all weathers, and one of the things that children learn is the importance of wearing the right clothes for the weather.

Why not dress up in waterproofs and wellies and take your children to the natural playground provided by the woodland. It's the ideal environment to have fun and learn at the same time – and it's totally free.

Learn more

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