2.1- Assignment (Unit 4): Assess the ecological impact of running a Forest School Programme on own site

Naomi Harvey
Aug 11, 2024
3 min read

What we can do to minimise the effect on space.

Currently we only visit the site once a week for one term, so for about 6-7 weeks, and then a different class will do the same the following term. Once myself and the class teacher has become a qualified Forest School Leader, we are hoping to extend the sessions to all year round, however, as explained in one of my other assignment’s, finding the balance with Forest School and Primary National Curriculum can be difficult, but my point being at the moment we are not having a huge impact on the space, however, we are still having some impact.

Whenever we carry out any form of session, be it den building, bridge building over our small brook, creating bug hunts, we always make sure that we return as much as we can to its original space. When den building we all use the same logs/branches with whichever year group we are in session with. When the activity has been completed, we then return the logs/branches to its original pile for the next group. This lowers the impact to disruption as we are not disturbing established habitats, there is less movement of branches within the area and no new logs or branches are being broken or used with the activity. All the branches/logs that are used have been previously cut with the idea of cultivation in mind.

We also make sure that when walking through the woodlands, we stick to the path in the centre and then when doing different activities have designated areas we can go to which are clearings, meaning we are minimising trampling of new fauna and less likely to disturb habitats or insects.

All the children know the cardinal rule of ‘no lick, no pick’ which in essence means that they are not to pick any berries, leaves, flowers or living fauna, if they would like to use some they must collect it from the ground where it has already fallen, this could still affect the decomposition cycle, however is short term

Upon leaving the site, all children and adults in the session do a sweep through for anything that is ‘alien’ to our surroundings, if there is any dropped litter, items used in an activity that does not live in the space e.g. string, or quite often clothing from children that they have dropped e.g. gloves and hats, this all needs collecting and removing correctly from the site.

The importance of ecological impact. Questions we may need to ask when carrying out our impact survey:

Do you need to seek permission from the landowner to use the site - we have done this with Ernest Cook Trust and they need to know when we are on the site and they are able to indicate if any work is being carried out at the moment and if there is anything we need to be aware of.

Scoping process - during the lesson planning we need to make sure what we are planning can match the site we are using. Have we thought about the time of year? have we thought about the space that we are able to use? Thinking about the requirements for the activity and establishing any site priorities and the ecological protection. Try and match up activities to go with the season’s and surroundings of that time of year and use it to your advantage. Is there anything we can do to enhance the surroundings and its inhabitants?

Within our Phase one survey, we get an understanding of the elements of the site, what we have locally such as water courses, flora/fauna, geology of the site and soil type, all things that will affect the way our sessions are carried out.

Finally, we look at the ecological impact and recognise how our sessions may impact on the ecology within our space. We can look at not only what we can do to minimise or even remove the impact, but how unavoidable impacts affect the surroundings but how important it is to teach the children that we are creating this impact and what we can do to minimise the effect we can have on our space.

Please find a link below for our Phase One Survey and Ecological Impact Matrix for the site of Trent Youngs Primary School Forest School space.