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Year 4 had their penultimate session of the year in Forest School on Monday 10th July 2023.
They have shown great development of their skills, perseverance, resilience and teamwork.
Tools, imaginative play, exploration and moments of mindfulness are some some of their favourite things.
Well done Year 4!
Mrs Wilton was so blown away by the impact of a child led holistic approach to Forest School, that she just had to share it with us!
Zara was inspired by Chloe’s wonderful reindeer creation that she wanted to make a ‘real’ reindeer.
Zara started with an idea, came up with a plan that her and Mrs Wilton tried together, this failed so they problem solved, and tried again & again. The learning that Zara achieved was amazing and not least with the hand tools – Designing, building, evaluating, perseverance, adaptability, math’s, communication and so much more.
Mrs Wilton even learnt something also – to have larger drill bits in the tool box!
The end result, as you can see, is fantastic & Zara should be very proud of herself.
Year 6 had an amazing time out in Forest School on Wednesday 1st March 2023.
They learned about the fire triangle using flint and steels, investigated camouflage, constructed shelters and swings and made full use of our wonderful site.
It was a pleasure to have them out there.
Well done Year 6!
Please look at more of our fabulous photos in our Gallery.
Year One had a brilliant time in Forest School on Friday 3rd March 2023.
They enjoyed working on their foundation knots and spotting our beautiful Spring birds.
Well done Year 1!
We are really lucky to have some amazingly talented families as part of our school community.
Tye and Blossom worked with their Mum to make this beautiful sign for our Forest School. Thank you for your hard work.
We were also very lucky to kindly be donated some new seating logs by Lily and Heath’s family. These were sorely needed and the children use them on a daily basis.
We really appreciate people donating resources that we can use to extend our children’s learning and improve our outdoor environment.
What a fabulous day we have had in Forest School on Tuesday 14th March 2023.
Year 5 became archeologists for the day, excavating pottery, painting their own Greek pot fragments and continuing to develop their tool skills.
Spencer and Tye worked together to prepare wood for future fires.
Year 2 loved working on a STEM activity this afternoon, using their growing knot skills and getting Teddy down a zip line.
Emily and Phoebe particularly enjoyed themselves and problem solved as a team.
Well done everyone!
Please look at more of our fabulous photos in our Gallery.
We are running a new six-week block of sessions at Hartlebury CofE Primary School.
Come and join us on a Friday and develop a love of the outdoors!
6 Weeks – £24.00
(Covers 1 x Adult & 1 Child)
21st April- 26th May 2023
09:30 – 10:30
All toddlers are welcome to join us for a fun filled morning in our Forest School supported by our experienced leaders.
Please call 01299 250312 or email office@hartlebury.worcs.sch.uk for further details and to book your place!
Hedgehogs have had an amazing morning in Forest School on Thursday 18th May 2023.
We were really lucky to have a visit from Reverend Winter who joined us in his wellies and absolutely loved discovering our stream with our friends. We investigated the flow, the temperament, what floats and sinks, the flora and fauna and how the game ‘Stuck in the Mud’ was created.
We used donated flowers for learning opportunities and creative design by using our fine motor skills to pick the flowers and create pictures.
The magnifying glasses were used to explore our Investigation Station and Ben and Harry loved the Mud Kitchen.
Reverend Winter told us what a fantastic time he had in our Forest School and how he could have stayed out there all day!
We are so lucky to be able to provide our children with such an incredible outdoor learning space.
Please look at some more of our fabulous photos in our Gallery.
Early Years had a great morning in a Forest School on Thursday 22nd June 2023.
We investigated our pollinators and their importance, looked at the many different species and played Noughts and Crosses with bees and ladybirds.
We also created bubble wands with sticks and pipe cleaners.
Kit loved blowing the bubbles and watching how the wind made them move.
We braved the first snow of Winter to enjoy our beautiful Forest School and celebrate Year 5’s achievement’s in their Christmas play.
We had a fire, s’mores, hot chocolate, investigated the changing season and Saskia and Annabelle built a swing.
Well done Year 5, your performance was fabulous and we all had lots of fun in Forest School!
Please look at more photo’s in our Gallery.
We have had an amazing delivery of new seating logs for our Forest School.
James’ family heard our plea for new logs after ours were aged and falling apart.
James worked with his Dad and Grandad, who own Summerway Wood, to cut all these for us last weekend.
Thank you Coogan family. We are very grateful.
Ballie, Harriet and Rae made a beautiful Autumn tree out of natural resources.
They used heather, leaves and brown paper to paint the tree and added extra heather for texture.
We will use the tree as a backdrop for our Autumn poems that the children are writing.
Well done girls. We love it!
Bobby in Year 4, helped Mrs Wilton build a wood store!
We needed storage for wood to use in our fires over Winter. We used some pallets that had been donated to us by Solar Select in Chaddesley.
Bobby measured the pallets, helped choose suitable sized ones, organised the construction crew, used tools to construct the wood store and then created a waterproof roof with a secured tarpaulin.
Now all it needs is the logs!
What a great build Bobby. We’ll get so much use from your wood store.
We are really proud of you.
Lime Class have been making the most of our new (this year) fruit trees and harvesting the first of the apples.
Henry-Boy and Flo were the first to tuck in and declared them “delicious”.
Hazel Class have been very busy investigating the freshwater shrimp that live in our stream.
They discovered that there are greater gatherings in the meanders of the stream and discussed why this might happen. They came to some very sound conclusions that they used their investigations to support.
Well done.
Harry-John enjoyed bird watching on the Forest School Meadow and using the resources to track which birds he saw and how many of each.
He spotted magpies, crows, blue tits and pigeons.
Well done Harry-John.
We love this photo of you.
How many more birds can you spot?
A few highlights from Forest School this week.
We made leaf angels, investigated different trees and their leaf shapes, developed our fine motor control and scissor skills, learned to use new tools, had fun and enjoyed the Autumn sunshine.
We always have so much fun in Forest School!
Don’t forget to wrap up warm and remember all of your Forest School items for the Autumn/Winter sessions.
To celebrate Diwali, the children in Hazel class had a go at creating natural mandalas.
They were beautiful and the children were very proud of themselves.
Happy Diwali to all who celebrate 
Early Years have been learning about 2D shapes this week in maths and bonfire night in their topic work on Celebrations.
At forest school they made 2D shapes using natural resources, created a ‘seesaw’, built a ‘bonfire’ and enjoyed a hot chocolate around the ‘fire’.
They have been very creative this week making firework pictures and enjoyed melting chocolate to make some yummy chocolate apples.
Well done Early Years. You are all amazing!
Please look at all of our lovely pictures in our Gallery.
On Friday 18th November 2022, Year 5 took part in ‘The Great Forest School Bake Off’ with wonderful entries that included a Snowman and Mrs Unitt’s favourite, Colin the Caterpillar.
Work also continued on building tool skills with the hand saw and hand drill.
Well done Year 5. You are all showing great responsibility and team work in learning these skills and the results are fantastic. You have also helped to create resources for Reception and Early Years to support their math’s learning.
Please look at more photos in our Gallery.
Year 4 had a great time in Forest School on Monday 7th November 2022.
We had a focus on Remembrance Day and beginning the preparation for our Christmas crafts.
Forest School lead Mrs Wilton said “The children’s uptake and confidence in the learning tool’s used is amazing and I am really proud of them”.
Well done Year 4!
Mrs Wilton and Mrs Hall have been very busy over the summer holidays making some improvements and changes to our fabulous outdoor Forest School area.
We can’t wait for the children to see the new and exciting outdoor space’s that have been created by our wonderful Forest School leads.
The picture attached is a sneaky look at what is in store for when the children return from their summer break.
Well done and thank you, as always, to everyone who helps make our Forest School the very best for our children!
Throughout this academic year, Mrs Hall and Mrs Wilton have been working towards their certification for Level 3 Forest School Practitioners. It has involved a lot of studying and hard work.
In May 2022, both Mrs Hall and Mrs Wilton went for a week-long assessment course where all their practical skills were thoroughly tested: knot tying, shelter building, food hygiene and cooking, using a range of tools and of course, fires.
Both passed their practical assessments with flying colours and are already putting their amazing skills to good use with our children in our very own Forest School.
Well done Mrs Hall and Mrs Wilton. You are a real asset to our school.
Year 2 have been thinking about what we need to help us feel safe, both for the animals and ourselves.
We built nests, hedgehog houses, burrows and dens for keeping us all safe and cosy.
Well done Year 2!
We have received some lovely pictures from Flo in Year 1.
Flo found a beautiful little baby red toad in the outbuilding in her garden on Wednesday 11th May 2022.
Flo and her family believe that because the toad is red in colour, which means that it is a girl.
Nonetheless, Flo was overjoyed to carry it to our forest school where it can live a happy sheltered life.
Welcome to Hartlebury little toad. We are sure you will be very happy here.
Year 2 have been looking at mini beasts in Forest School.
They have made a lovely little Butterfly.
Well done Year 2! We love it.
We had a wonderful time at Toddler Forest School on Friday 1st April 2022.
The weather was sunny one minute and snowing the next but that didn’t stop us having lots of fun!
The focus of our session was mark making and the children had a great time making their own natural paint brushes. We even made our own paint by squashing berries and using charcoal.
The children also enjoyed creating muddy puddles with water we collected from our stream and doing some ‘fishing’ from our bridge.
Please look at more of our fabulous photos in our Gallery.
Please see the link below to the Shuttle website and the Hartlebury Community Toddler Forest School story:
Kidderminster Shuttle – Toddler Forest School
We are very proud to be able to offer this wonderful Educational Service to our families and the wider Community.
In forest school on Monday 21st March 2022, Year 4 had a team work exercise to build a Viking Long Ship.
The children designed, built and crewed the ship to invade Lindisfarne in 793 AD. They used Forest School resources and started to use their growing knowledge of knots to create the mast and sail.
A special mention to Zac who was amazingly resourceful using tyres as shields. He implemented the mast idea too!
Super work Year 4!
CALLING ALL TODDLERS
From March 2022 we are running Toddler Forest School sessions at Hartlebury CofE Primary School. All toddlers are welcome to join us (with their parent/carer) for a fun filled afternoon in our Forest School supported by our experienced leaders.
Come and join us every other Friday and develop a love of the outdoors!
Please share our poster far and wide so we can provide these sessions to our local community and beyond.
We will also be sharing this amazing opportunity on our school website and Facebook page so please share through your social media also!
If you or anyone you know are interested in booking a space, call 01299 250312 or email office@hartlebury.worcs.sch.uk for further details.
We are very excited about developing forest school opportunities for the best possible future of our school!
Mrs Anneka Hall and Mrs Denise Wilton both started their Forest School Leadership training before half term, 5 full days outside and quite often in the pouring rain!!
They had an amazing time and have returned to school full of ideas for how to really establish us as a Forest School.
We are very excited about this and are extremely grateful to you all, via the PTA for funding this training.
In Forest School Hares had a pumpkin focused activity, where they practiced their hand eye coordination by tapping golf tees into the pumpkin with rolling pins. This was linked to our learning about the season of Autumn.
We also made mud pies, built a castle out of logs and explored Forest School to find insects.
We had so much fun!
Please look at more of our fabulous Forest School photos in our Gallery and on our Outdoor Learning page.
Flo in Year 1, wanted to show us her fabulous Hedgehog Hotel that she built with her Dad.
Flo had taken part in and thoroughly enjoyed, a wonderful Forest School session led by Mrs Hall and Mrs Wilton in school. Once Flo was at home that afternoon, she told her family that it was really important to build homes for hedgehogs in our gardens. With this in mind, Flo and her Dad then made a fabulous Hedgehog Hotel and shared her amazing work with us.
Well done Flo and Flo’s Dad. Your Hedgehog Hotel is absolutely fabulous and we can see how much hard work you have put into making this.
We are very much looking forward to receiving the extra one you are making for our very own Forest School!
Hartlebury Primary School has a lovely Forest School area that our Early Years really enjoy using on a Friday morning.
The children were hunting for minibeasts and we found some charcoal which they enjoyed mark making with.
Please take a look in our Gallery to see some beautiful pictures from forest school this morning.