Forest School Research – Ysgol Pentre 06/07

 

The following is an executive summary from a report on research carried out at Pentre Forest School in 2006. This research captures the benefits of Forest School for mainstream primary school children and assesses different evaluation methods for Forest School Leaders and participants. A full report is available from ffion.hughes@forestry.gsi.gov.uk

Section 1 - Executive summary

This report summarises research undertaken by Lorna Jenner, freelance environmental education consultant and Ffion Hughes, Education Officer of the Forestry Commission Wales. A 14-week Forest School programme was developed involving two classes from Ysgol Pentre, a small village primary school in Pentre, near Chirk, North Wales. The research project sought to ascertain whether Forest School led to observed changes in participating pupils. A second aim was to test evaluation techniques, and subsequently suggest methods of evaluation for other leaders to use and adapt.

Section A – Effects of Forest School

This section of the report outlines how the programme was evaluated based upon the New Economics Foundation (nef) /Forest Research Phase 21 model for evaluating Forest School. All the stakeholders: teachers, Forest School leaders, parents and the pupils themselves were involved in the evaluation process.

Using the model proposed by the New Economics Foundation (nef)/Forest Research, a storyboard exercise was undertaken to establish the propositions and underlying hypothesis for the Forest School, and to choose the indicators and ways to collect data, to demonstrate whether these propositions were correct.

These were:

• Increased self-esteem and self-confidence
• Improved social skills
• The development of language and communication skills
• Improved physical motor skills
• Improved motivation and concentration
• Increased knowledge and understanding of the environment

To gather evidence, samples of children from each class were observed during the Forest School sessions. To track whether or not the observed behaviour that was being displayed supported the propositions, the sample children’s conduct was tracked weekly by the leaders and teachers using data recording templates.

All the participating children completed Forest School diaries and their parents were also asked to complete two evaluation forms during the course of the programme. Once the programme had come to a close, informal review workshops loosely based on the highs and lows section of the evaluation poster described in the nef report, were held with the children, teachers and classroom assistants.

Having gathered and analysed the information from all involved, it was clear that substantive observed behavioural changes against each of the stated propositions, had occurred.

• New perspectives for the teachers, leaders, children and parents involved in Forest School

Noticeable increases in self-confidence were displayed in many children during the programme. Pupils were observed tackling new tasks without assistance and talking to new visitors, particularly the pupils who were more timid and withdrawn in school.

• Increased self-esteem and self-confidence

Teachers and Leaders noticed strong teamwork developing and teachers commented that successful partnerships were formed in Forest School between pupils who had not previously been able to work successfully together in the classroom.

• Improved social skills

Many pupils were quiet and reserved with the unfamiliar adults during the early weeks. Gradually, as the programme progressed, these children were observed willingly sharing ideas and explaining to visiting adults about the Forest School rules.

• The development of language and communication skills

There was a degree of improvement in many of the children. After needing help during the first few weeks climbing steps and getting over the stile, they soon got used to the physical challenges that the Forest School site imposed and with encouragement, relished tackling these head on.

• Improved physical motor skills

A number of the children were already highly motivated at the beginning of the project, eager to participate in everything and very responsive to questions. From the perspective of concentration, great improvements were observed. Children who had been described as having low concentration levels were observed focussing for long periods of time, making elder jewellery and looking for minibeasts.

• Improved motivation and concentration

A major area of improvement with leaders, teachers and parents frequently commenting on the increased level of environmental awareness and interest in wildlife. As the weeks progressed, children could be heard chatting amongst each other about how nice the smell of the wild garlic was and discussing how the sun had dried up the puddles because it was summertime.

• Increased knowledge and understanding of the environment

As the teachers were in a support role rather than actually delivering the programme, it gave them a valuable opportunity to observe the children going about their activities.

Parental comments indicate that many of the children were sufficiently enthused about their Forest School experience that they took it back into their home lives, taking their parents on the weekends to see what they had been doing that week at Forest School.

Summary of Conclusions

• New perspectives for teachers, leaders and parents

• Areas that showed marked improvement were confidence and concentration - the extent of which had not been anticipated.
• The findings in this report give further evidence to justify the inclusion of Forest School into the mainstream curriculum.

Section B – How effective was the evaluation toolkit?

From the perspective of evaluating the children’s learning, the evaluation toolkit included templates from the nef report to record observed behaviour on a weekly basis. Pre and post baseline pupil assessment forms, parental questionnaires and pupil Forest School diaries were also created and reflective evaluation sessions held with the children, to capture further information. Formative assessment of the leaders’ teaching was provided by the completion of reflective session diaries by both the teachers and leaders. The leaders also gave each other verbal peer feedback.

Acting as observers, the teachers’ evaluations proved the most valuable during the project as they know the pupils well in a conventional learning situation and are used to assessing and evaluating pupils. However their time is restricted. Had the teachers been running the programme themselves, they may not have had as much time to dedicate to the evaluation. This should be considered for future evaluations.

Leaders’ assessments proved a useful aid for planning future programmes. Photographic evidence also provided good evidence for evaluation whilst the children’s Forest School diaries gave a good picture of the children’s likes and dislikes and the impact of Forest School. Parental feedback provided useful evidence to demonstrate the wider ‘ripple effects’ of Forest School.

Recommendations for improving the evaluation:

• Further research would be required to establish whether the project had a long-term impact on the children’s lives.
• More time required to the planning of the baseline assessments and teachers should be included in the process.
• Simplification of leaders’ weekly evaluation forms
• Improve the structure of reflective evaluation sessions by separating the children into their year groups, rather than trying to get the whole class to work together
• To tie in with the curriculum of the foundation phase, creativity and play should be assessed.
• The site was a wet woodland of high ecological importance. Although no long-term damage was sustained, due to unseasonably bad weather, for a couple of weeks the Forest School basecamp became muddy and waterlogged. Greater use of a secondary site within the woodland could have been made. Although an ecological impact assessment for the site was compiled before the programme began, weekly written evaluations of the site should be made in future.

Appendices

The appendices provide the formats used for gathering evidence as well as examples of data gathered during the project.

If you require a copy of the Pentre report in full, please contact Ffion Hughes:

Telephone: 0845 604 0485 or email: ffion.hughes@forestry.gsi.gov.uk