The sounds of intrepid forest school explorers will echo through the large woodland and green space between Heckmondwike, Dewsbury Moor and Ravensthorpe this summer as social enterprise Get Out More continue their free sessions for young people.

The sessions at Dewsbury Country Park offer lots of active and adventurous activities with qualified and experienced forest school leaders.  The sessions are for young people aged 8-12 years from the Heckmondwike, Dewsbury Moor and Raventhorpe areas

This programme is funded by Kirklees Council and has been running for the past 2 years.  Director Annie Berrington thinks that the popularity of the sessions hinges on people wanting to connect more with nature.

“We know that being outdoors even for a short period of time can have a huge impact on emotional, mental and physical well being and is a healthy alternative to staying indoors playing computer games . The sessions in Dewsbury are in an amazing space that some local people don’t even know is there. Activities planned such as den building, woodcraft, outdoor games and campfire cooking will encourage children’s natural curiosity and develop their skills. We will be there whatever the summer weather throws at us.”

Due to the growing popularity of the Dewsbury Country Park programme, Get Out More has introduced a booking system for the sessions.  Parents wanting to book a free place for their children should now go to Get Out More’ website events page to book a place.

Get Out More runs other sessions across West Yorkshire; more details can be found at www.getoutmorecic.co.uk.

Bradford’s first overnight forest school camp took place at the weekend at Blackhills and saw 17 young people enjoy the freedom of the woods. The group, made up of children aged 10 -15 learned skills including campfire cooking, wood carving and games.  Zahabia Naveed from Bradford had never been to forest school before and loved the experience.

“I carved wood, made some friends, climbed trees and learnt how to do a campfire.  I made stew for tea.  Forest school in one word?  Amazing”

Our fores schools involve problem solving, managed risk taking, creativity and co-operation through a mix of games, creative and adventurous activities, learning and reflection. Director Annie comments  “The young people asked us over and over to put on an overnight camp so this is our first one and I believe the first one in the city.  Young people needed to put up their own tents, light the fire and cook all their meals over a campfire,  putting into practice some of the outdoor and bushcraft skills they have learnt at forest school so this is the natural next step for a lot of our intrepid Get Out More children.” 

“We were thrilled with the first camp. It was great to be able to extend the forest school experience and have more time to engage with the woodland.  These days many children lead very structured and supervised lives, mostly indoors.  At camp they loved having the freedom to explore outdoors, let their imaginations run wild and make up their own games.  They took to the responsibility of cooking all their meals and seemed to enjoy the food all the more because they had made it themselves”

We are planning another camp next summer.  Meanwhile we are running a forest school for young people on the Second Saturday of the month and are now taking bookings for the Autumn. If you want to be the first to know, then sign up to our  newsletter at the top of this page or follow us on Twitter or Facebook.