The Role Of The Forest School Leader

Today, I take a look at the importance of the Forest School leader. Now a leaders role is to ultimately develop within a child the life skills to see them right for the future, which cannot be underestimated, right? They really are the conductor of a symphony.

Much like a world class orchestra the leader remains a vital visible figure in any session but their work and understanding remains invisible to the audience which in this case is the children and their parents.

The Child, The Whole Child and Nothing But The Child!

Their role begins by promoting and ‘being’ the Forest School way of learning, where children learn though play they choose and direct, in a natural environment full of open ended resources, resources or play items that have no defined purpose such as a stick, and always, always, always focusing on developing the whole child in a way that meets them where they’re at, whoever they are.

A Forest School Leader is their guardian for freedom — so they have permission to play, explore, to try and not fear failure, to get dirty!

A leader provides an environment where children are supported to work things out by themselves so they can develop problem solving, resilience and determination personality traits…without directive support and being told what to do.

A Leader empowers children with the confidence so they can navigate their environment and their social relationships.

A Leader maintains safety, from a distance so children can begin to assess risks for themselves.

A Leader makes sure children feel secure and their needs are met so that they know they are respected, cared for, listened to and appreciated.

The Forest School Leader Not As An Obtrusive Interference But A Learning Facilitator.

In this whole process children are seen as competent, unique and valued. To achieve this the real ‘work’ of the Forest School leader comes from the observation of each individuals traits and where they currently are on their leaning journey so that each child can be given the due time, attention and skills to thrive.

The aim is not to be an obtrusive interference to a child’s learning, but one that is there to support when called upon or to join in pay when asked to or mediate learners social interactions as they learn to become socially competent.

Only through observations and indepth knowledge, skills, and understanding can a leader guide the child correctly and toward incredible destinations. This is the true value of the Forest School leader and why the whole approach is gaining in popularity.

Small Achievable Tasks

On those occasions mentioned how might a Leader unobtrusively guide learning for a child?

If a child is in need of support and physically asks for it, a leader will first speak with them about the task they are trying to accomplish to identify ways forward.

Some children at this stage may be driven to continue their attempts as they may have been given inspiration.

Others may not be quite there yet. This is when the notion of small achievable tasks are introduced. Whatever play opportunity a child has chosen, the Leader will break it down into smaller more manageable parts. Each part is re-tried or rather rebuilt one after the other by the child until success is achieved. Through these methods children’s self-esteem, self-belief and confidence are developed.

Joining In With Play

The value of joining in with play is so underrated but can achieve incredible results within children learning journeys. As I said before the leader will only join in play if invited. If they are, joint play develops social and emotional development of children helping them gain a sense of responsibility for their own actions and towards others.

Not only does taking part in these activities help increase confidence and ability but with success will also allow all people involved to have a really enjoyable time and simply loose track of time.

Modelling Manners

During these times and in conflict resolution, due to developing social skill competence, a leader will demonstrate exceptional social skills in dealing with children and at all times act as a role model for the children in over coming conflict or even set backs in play. They will model appropriate behaviour at all times and encourage children to develop a greater awareness of their own and other’s emotional needs.

Ultimately A leaders responsibility is to facilitate real achievement in an environment which will allow children to conduct their own explorations and manage their own learning, building their self-esteem, confidence and independence and encourage them to build relationships with others their own age as they discover the need for working as a team to achieve more than they may have been able to alone.

In carrying out these programs in a natural environment all the social and emotional development goals of the program can be met while increasing the children’s understanding of the natural environment and environmental issues.

The power of the Forest School Leader

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