Budding Children’s Resilience
Guideposts has been supporting children to build social and emotional resilience through a new, specially devised, Forest School programme. The first set of 10 sessions were completed last month, with extremely positive results.
The sessions supported the children to find ways to regulate their emotions and communicate more appropriately when things didn’t go their way. It also helped the children to understand that it’s OK to get things wrong.
“It was fantastic to see how the children grew and developed over the weeks. They became much more confident and comfortable with the outdoors” said Guideposts Outdoor Wellbeing Coordinator Victoria Bond.
“Over the 10 sessions, we saw significant improvement take place in the children’s behaviours and personal skills. Particular achievements were in coping with change, and finding social & emotional resilience, learned through risk taking.”
“These key skills will empower the young individuals to thrive.”
About the New Forest School Programme
The programme incorporated the key elements of Forest School, allowing the children to develop organically with minimal adult direction. Some of the best loved activities were lighting a fire with a flint and steel, splitting wood with tools, and erecting a tarp.
The team were delighted at how quickly the children threw themselves into it, their willingness to engage in a new activity/environment was truly heart-warming.
Achievements and Progress
At the beginning, one child would get cross if things didn’t go as planned during some activities, but made great progress during the 10 sessions to self-regulate when similar situations occurred.
The school’s teachers said that they saw a great difference in the children at the end of the programme. They observed improvements in the children’s concentration and settling to a task, as well as handling feedback and interaction with peers. Their feedback showed that, at the end of the 10 sessions, the children were more often relaxed and calm, and less often anxious and worried, frustrated, or distracted.
One teacher said “Bea has really grown in confidence, they even want to stand up and talk in assembly.” and
“This is a great provision, why isn’t it available in all schools! It would have really helped my son.”
Children’s Feedback
At the final session each child was given the Forest School journal that they had made, and a personal letter from the forest school staff which thanked them for attending and shared the positive qualities that the team observed and liked or respected.
The children‘s answers to their questionnaire also showed what they felt about the sessions.
In these word-cloud representations, the answers are sized to indicate how many children gave which answer.
How much did you enjoy your time at Forest School?
Which activities at Forest School made you feel confident, brave or happy?
What helped you feel brave at Forest School?
What did you learn about yourself at Forest School?
Did you make new friends during the Forest School sessions?
Jody’s story
At our 2nd session a Teaching Assistant arrived with a young person, Jody. We greeted them and introduced ourselves. Jody looked up at the adult with them, then back at us, but said nothing. The teaching assistant (TA) asked, “would you like me to stay with you?”. Once more they said nothing. Jody’s body language was mixed, their head was turned towards the TA, yet their body and shoulders squarely faced us, arms relaxed by their sides. We reassured the TA that Jody would be fine, and they left the area. Jody watched as the adult walked away, they made no effort to follow them, instead they wandered off to explore the area… and that’s where their adventure started.
Away from Jody, who was now immersed in poking a hole with a stick, the TA explained that they had recently received a diagnosis of autism, and selective mutism.
Jody used body language or vocalisations in the beginning to communicate a need or want. We accepted it and made no effort to push them. However, as they felt more comfortable with us, the environment, and the other children, they started to use words like “thanks” “yes” and “please”. They gradually discovered what interested them and settled with these activities, and as that happened their confidence grew. They extended one word communication to sentences, and even happily told us about things they had done over the Christmas holidays “I went and saw reindeer, they were big and furry”.
By the end of the 10 sessions, Jody had grown and developed from using vocalisations and gestures with minimal interaction with others, to a person that was always happy to help, wore a smile on their face and chatted with others; one whose confidence and independence grew with every session. A young person that knew exactly what they wanted to be involved in, and very clearly expressed what they didn’t. They played and interacted with other children, and were determined to master the skills they’d be shown.
At the last session, Jody sat and drank their hot chocolate. They delayed departure by running their little fingers around the inside of the cup to scoop the last drops of hot chocolate. This was one occasion when they didn’t wear a smile, and their reluctance to leave was simply because they had enjoyed themselves. Their closing statement as they left was “I don’t want to go, and I don’t want other children to come to Forest School.”
We are delighted with all the responses and feedback from the first set of sessions of this new programme. We are confident that we have aided these children with improving their resilience, and given them tools to develop their life skills and thrive. We look forward to helping many more children and young people with this work, as the programme develops.
How is Guideposts Forest School programme made possible?
We are grateful that the first set of sessions for the programme was made possible with support from the Oxfordshire Well Together fund.
Guideposts is currently delivering this Forest School project in Oxfordshire schools. Find out more at https://guideposts.org.uk/services/forest-school-bushcraft/ and to enquire contact oxfordshire@guideposts.org.uk or call 01993 893 560.
Please note, in line with Guideposts Trust policies, all names of people supported have been changed.
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