Our Bush Kindy program is offered once a week to children enrolled in our Kindergarten Marigolds Room. Run by Centre Owner Miss Heather; a qualified Forest School Leader and Early Childhood/Primary School Teacher, the program provides children the opportunity to explore and learn from the gifts nature has to offer. Forest School/Bush Kindy provides many benefits to connecting children with nature – both in potential improvements in physical and mental health and in improving development and play.  There are also potential benefits to the environment, as a generation connected to nature is more likely to value and protect it.

The Forest School movement originated in Scandinavia in the 1950s, where it embraced philosophies of child-initiated learning and learning through play and its practice has been growing in the UK since 1993.  The ethos of forest school focuses on raising confidence and self-esteem of children through small, achievable tasks and nurturing their personal, social and emotional development through development of social and team-working skills. 

“You cannot learn to be safe by avoiding risks. Risks provide an avenue for practicing skills involved in making wise choices.” - Dan Hodgins

Children are highly motivated to play in risky ways, but they are also very good at knowing their own capacities and avoiding risks they are not ready to take either physically or emotionally.  Risky play allows children to learn how to problem solve; co-ordinate where their body needs to move and build their core and gross motor skills.  We encourage children to persevere through challenges and celebrate their achievements in order to keep them intrinsically motivated and encourage building their confidence and self-esteem.  

Children learn to respect and care for their natural world when they are given the opportunity to be surrounded by it.  They learn how to care for and respect the animals, creatures and the flora and fauna when they form a deep connection to land.  

There are endless discoveries and natural resources to be found in the bush to ignite the children’s creativity and encourage imaginative play.  The children will learn how their presence can ecologically impact the environment by making their own observations and having meaningful conversations with educators.  These experiences will inevitably encourage a long-term, environmentally sustainable attitude and practice at Bush Kindy and beyond.