Chapter 1: What unique features does Kirtlestown School offer?
Obviously, Kirtlestown School, which we visited at the top of the programme, is in a pretty privileged position. Not every school has its own wood and field next door that the church can give them to plant even more trees than those that are already around them and build an outdoor classroom.
There are, though, forest schools, a resource which offer teachers access to somewhere that kids can push boundaries and learn at the same time. Regan Hutchins went to a forest school Easter camp near Dunedee Forest in Kildare and met forest school leader Lucy Bell of Growing Wild and an enthusiastic team of forest scholars.
You want to shoot me? That's a nice welcome.
Hi, Regan, I'm Lucy. And this is Lucy Ella. We've got two Lucys here today.
Yeah, I'm Lucy.
Hi, Lucy. I made tea.
Can I make a bow to shoot? Would you like some tea? I'm being surrounded by people who've made tea and made bows to shoot at me. Would you like tea? Yes, a cup of tea, please. Tea would be lovely. So we're looking at kids now in your land here. Some of them are sitting under a giant tent.
Yeah, a giant tarp, yes, which was a parachute. I literally didn't think this dream would come true of actually having my own land. So I've been slowly, I've put up a pie tunnel, I've put in my orchard, I've two woodlands, I've put in a willow coppice. And then, yeah, obviously the forest school camp has been kind of developing over the last few years.
Wait, one, two, three.
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Chapter 2: What activities take place at the forest school Easter camp?
So they're like sword fighting with sticks, but they're not allowed to hit each other with the sticks.
What is a forest school?
It's a place in nature where kids can be kids, allowing kids to just be themselves, be outdoors. So you should see children climbing trees, just running around playing their own games. There's some stick play, there's been stick play going on. Depends which weapon you want.
If you want a spear like Harvey, you need to practice jabbing. If you want a staff or sword like me, you need to practice swinging, jabbing and dodging. You don't want to hurt them.
They've been doing fairy fires, so we have fire steels and little shells so they can do tiny fires. We'll have a big fire going, we'll be doing some cooking. There's some den making. Supported risk, that's one of the principles of our school. So it's supporting them in a safe way to still be able to take risks.
If they don't get to take risks, they don't get to figure out the test boundaries or to see what's possible without getting hurt. So if they climb a tree, they get to go, oh, hang on a second, that branch is OK, that branch isn't OK. And it's not an activity-based camp, so they don't come in and we say, this is what you're doing today.
It's very much what we call child-led, so it's led by the children themselves.
Why did you come up here for your Easter camp? I don't know, being... In nature. And he's my friend. Also because we can climb trees. And Lucy's very nice. Yeah, she even lets us pick her herbs to make some tea. But these kids, they do go to school, but this is something that they do regularly, not just here at the Easter camp, but this is a regular part of their lives.
Yes, I do an after-school programme as well, so these kids would come once a week after school.
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Chapter 3: What is the concept of a forest school?
Next. You didn't get one and want one. I've never eaten dandelion before. I just eat the whole thing. So here I should do it too. Is it bitter? It's a little bit bitter, but it's actually delicious. but they also have a bit of texture to them as well. The concept of Forest School is something that's quite new for me, but it has been around in Ireland for a while now.
Yeah, that's right. Ciara Hinksman, she's the founding chair of the Irish Forest School Association. She brought over trainers from the UK. And so I was in the first cohort of trainees in 2013. From that, the Irish Forest School Association was founded. And now there are over, you know, at least 200, if not more, leaders trained around the country.
So that's including primary school teachers, freelancers, people in all kinds of settings. It's starting to become known and people are looking for it and they're looking for it for their children. There are forest schools in nearly every county in Arlington.
Come in for the rain! Oh my God! Oh my God!
That rain was recorded earlier this week. It will not happen today. Go fall out of a tree today, though. It is a lesson that you won't soon forget. Regan Hutchins reporting there.
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