Welcome to Devon Forest Kindergarten at Children of the Forest: A Forest School Outdoor Kindergarten for children aged 3-6

Our aim is to deliver the highest quality of care and education in a unique outdoor setting, giving your child the chance to grow and learn in nature.

This prospectus aims to provide you with an introduction to Devon Forest Kindergarten, our routines, our approach to supporting your child’s learning and development and how we aim to work together with you to best meet your child’s individual needs. This should be read alongside our Childcare Terms and Conditions for a full description of our services.

Our Setting

Devon Kindergarten HQ is a separate, fenced off section of our main woodland site, specifically for the use of our young kindergarten children. Our setting allows children to play outdoors in all weathers, experiencing the natural world and exploring through the seasons. We have lots of large shelters in case of rain, and a cosy bender shelter with books and blankets for children to use whenever they like.

You may notice that we don’t have a lot of the usual ‘toys’ that you will see at an indoor nursery. What you will see are things like spades for digging, bug hunting kits, ‘loose parts’ such as string, clay, wood and lots of tools for children to make their own toys, whether that be designing and building their own see saw or sawing and decorating a gnome doll and its home, all with our support. We believe play should come from the child’s imagination rather than be prescribed by toy manufacturers!

Places

In line with our Forest School ethos, we have much higher adult to child ratios than a normal

nursery. We currently have just 10 places for children in the kindergarten.

Our adult to child ratios allow us to:

- give time and attention to each child;

- talk with the children about their interests and activities;

- help children to experience and benefit from the activities we provide; and

- allow the children to explore and be adventurous in safety.

Staff

Lewis Ames (Director)

• Qualified Primary School Teacher

• PGCE in Primary Education

• BA Hons Music

• Level 3 Forest School Leader and trainer

• Paediatric First Aid

• Forest School First Aid

• Child Protection & Safeguarding Training

• Prevent Duty Trained

• Safeguarding Lead

• Recent CPD includes: Promoting Positive Behaviour

Gemma Southerden (Director)

• Qualified Teacher

• MA in Teaching

• Diploma in Drama

• Level 3 Forest School Leader and trainer

• Paediatric First Aid

• Forest School First Aid

• Child Protection & Safeguarding Training

• Setting SENDco

• Recent CPD includes: Promoting Positive Behaviour, SENDco training

Learning and Development

We have a forest school, child-led, play-based ethos, whilst following the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). Our intent is to give our children a rich and varied experience which promotes positive mental health, in an environment which values the educational and personal development benefits of play.

We want the children in our care to learn to:

Look after themselves: learning to gain independence and resilience, how to take risks, learning to respect and articulate their own physical and emotional needs and preferences, making their own choices

Look after Others: learning to behave in a way which is fair to others, communicating clearly and listening to / looking out for others’ needs and preferences

Look after the Natural World: developing a connection to nature, learning to observe, empathise with and care for the natural environment

To implement our aims, we have:

• Play and activity invitations during the day, with few non-negotiable activities; activities are planned based on the children’s interests and needs, and frequently planned ‘in the moment’

• Natural environment with natural open ended resources

• Small group size (maximum of ten children, with two leaders)

• Policies and routines based on respect for children’s play needs, emotional needs and mutual respect. You won’t find sand timers or enforced sharing in our setting; we encourage communication, patience and empathy with the help of resources such as wait boards.

• Circle time and reflections, during which children and adults communicate their feelings and thoughts, reflecting on the experiences they have had during the day.

We regularly measure and assess the impact of our practice. We do this every week through reflections together as practitioners, conversations and reflections with the children, observing the children and reviewing their learning journals; and throughout the year by collecting feedback from parents through regular meetings or feedback forms and conversations with other settings. 

We regularly attend CPD to improve and develop our practice.

A typical day

No two days are the same in the forest. The child-led play based nature of our setting means that the children’s interests and imaginations lead our planning of activities. However, a typical day will always include music making (Lewis and Gemma play drums and ukulele among other instruments and lead lively singing and dancing sessions!), storytelling, crafts, cooking, games and lots of free play.

A typical day might look like this:

9 - 9.15: Children arrive and are registered. Settling in activities will already be available.

9.30: Circle time, where we check in with how we are feeling, talk about our ideas for the day, and reminder of our three rules: Look After Yourself, Look After Each Other, Look After the Woods. This is followed by an active group game where we might also be practising our listening, observation or physical skills.

Free play and opportunity to engage in many activities: play cooking in the mud kitchen, make a wooden toy, build a den, make music, engage in water and mud play…the possibilities are endless. 

10:30: Snacks around the camp table, followed by singing and music making.

11:00: Exploration of the wider woodland on our ‘Woods Walk’: bird spotting, bug hunting, looking at seasonal change, digging…Then time spent in Main Camp, where we might cook together in the camp kitchen, or use tools in the tool area.

12:00: Lunchtime.

12:45: Free play and outdoor art and craft, storytelling, drama. We use oral storytelling and encourage the children to tell us their own stories, which we then act out.

13:45: Cosy book story time in the shelter or the sunshine!

14:15: Afternoon snack or cooking around the campfire, circle time with reflection and gratitudes.

14.45: Get ready for home time.

Children’s Learning Journeys

When your child is enrolled with us, we create a Learning Journey for them using the Tapestry software. You will be provided with a log in, so you can view updates with your child’s progress, and are encouraged to add your own comments and observations of your child’s development.

Key Person and Settling In

Every child is assigned a key person who takes responsibility for the child’s welfare and learning at the kindergarten. They are the first port of call for parents and carers. Our policy on the role of the Key Person is available from the ‘Policies’ section of our website. We will work with you to decide on how to help your child to settle into the setting.

Food

Children will bring their own packed lunch and snacks each day (we have a cool box to store food in warm weather). However cooking healthy snacks on the campfire is a regular activity at the kindergarten. Clean drinking water is always available and children are provided with warm drinks in cold weather.

What will my child need to bring / wear?

As well as a packed lunch, snacks and a drink, children will need to wear suitable outdoor clothing. This includes wellies, full waterproofs, and thermal layers, hats and gloves in cold weather; sun hats in warm weather.