Virtual Forest School sessions

What does one do when all around you changes? How do we cope without some sort of normality? Where can we go to meet our friends?

During the COVID-19 pandemic of March 2020, our lives, sense of purpose and priorities were changed, when a microscopic bug, crept into our livelihoods and halted the way we lived. Being in lockdown, stuck indoors for hours on end and being cut off from businesses, no access to family or friends, and restricted within a 2 metre tether, we had to find alternative ways in which to go about our lives. Luckily, for many Forest School Practitioners, we are resilient and thinkers outside of the box. However, what this meant was that we would have to go against the grain of what we normally advocate, of being unplugged and immersed in nature in the great outdoors, and literally stay indoors, plugged in and think inside a box...

What are you talking about? I hear you ask. Virtual Forest School sessions, by way of a fabulous computer app called Zoom, has kept us all virtually connected during this surreal time and enabled us to keep in touch with our contacts and loved ones and see each others faces. Being unable to meet and greet our Forest School groups and indeed hug and hold our families and friends, has had an impact on the well-being and mental health of many individuals. However, in delivering these sessions on a weekly basis, we have been able to see and virtually connect with our networks and boost moral and social interaction, by literally meeting inside little boxes, on screens in peoples homes and gardens...

Each week, in partnership with my friend and a fellow Forest School Practitioner, Judy from Green Caterpillar https://greencaterpillar.org/ and I choose a theme and deliver a 30-40 minute session to those wishing to participate. Each session commences with an introduction, by way of the Name Game, a familiar game played by many,  where individuals choose an animal that begins with the same letter or sound as their name: I'm 'Kate the Koala.' Their forest names are then typed in and are displayed on to their individual boxes, giving them their sense of me, instead of it just saying, ' Barnie's iPad!' We have an activity or two planned each week linked to the theme, which they can take part in and details of resources required are sent to them in advance. We have time during each session for the children to have a chat and tell everyone what they've been up to and it is lovely to see the interaction between themselves. For some, they are only children and have no siblings, so this may be there only chance each week to see other children's' faces! Each week is then ended with a story, which the children listen to, generally whilst carrying on with their activity...