11th October 2025
Mrs Ball (Hanbury's Forest School Curriculum Lead) and our Forest School Leader, Mrs Mol update us on what's been happening so far this term in our wonderful outdoor classroom...
This half term, Reception and Year 1 have had a fantastic time at Forest School, exploring the great outdoors and noticing all the wonderful autumnal changes around us. We’ve been busy digging, collecting leaves, and using ropes and tarpaulin to build dens. The children made salt dough to sculpt hedgehogs and had lots of fun making faces out of natural materials, which we then stuck on trees.
We’ve learned all about nocturnal animals and how some creatures are getting ready to hibernate for winter. As food is getting harder to find, we made bird feeders by spreading butter onto bread and pressing seeds into it —perfect for practising our spreading skills with a knife. The children carefully hung their feeders on trees and branches for the birds to discover and enjoy.
Our autumn theme has continued by making conker caterpillars and colourful conker streamers. We predicted how far our streamers would fly, then tested our ideas and measured the results—it was lots of fun! We practised knots and made leads for our caterpillars. We’ve also enjoyed vegetable printing using autumn colours, leaf collecting, and other autumn- inspired crafts.
We’ve been developing some amazing practical skills too. Reception have used hammers to tap golf tees into pumpkins, while Year 1 have hammered nails into wood. Both year groups have practised tying knots and used peelers and craft knives to whittle willow and wood, creating wonderful “log dogs.” Year 1 have even tried using flint fire starters and some children were very proud to make real sparks and set fire to cotton wool!
We’ve also started making wooden “cookies,” learning how to use tools safely and sawing slices from logs. We have used a hand drill to make holes so that we can decorate them by hanging autumn treasures from them.
Everyone has worked so carefully and safely, showing fantastic teamwork and perseverance. The weather has been kind to us (mostly!), but we’ve still managed to enjoy getting muddy. What a fun filled and adventurous half term we’ve had at Forest School Friday!
Reception Class enjoy a weekly Forest School session throughout the year, whilst every other class get to don their wellies for 2 half term blocks of lessons, tailored to each year group's curriculum. The on-site Forest School area provides year-round facilities for exploring and enjoying the great outdoors!
