Category: forest school

Forest School, Tuesday & Thursday afternoons, Sneinton

Date: Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, from September 2017.

Start dates for autumn 2017: Tuesday 12 & Thursday 14 September. (Lauren will also be running a similar session on Mondays in Heanor, Derbyshire – out of area for this blog, but do contact her if you’re interested.)

Booking deadline for those sessions: Friday 1 September.

Time: 3.30pm to 5.15pm.

Venue: On land behind the Iona school. 310 Sneinton Dale, Nottingham, NG3 7DN.

Area: Sneinton, on the 43 (red) bus route, not far from Colwick Woods.

Age range: 4 to 12, divided into 2 groups by age.

Day Age
Tuesdays 4 to 7*
Thursdays 8 to 12*

* These are guideline ages; there’s potentially some flexibility. An example might be if siblings of 7 and 8 wanted to be in the same group. Have a chat.

Price: £10 per session, booked in blocks, typically 5 sessions to a block. Sibling discount of 25%. “Provided we are not fully booked, we are happy for your child to attend the first session as a trial before committing.” If the groups are full, you can go on a waiting list.

Booking: To book, contact Lauren who runs it. Email lauren at intothewildwood dot co dot uk, or use the contact form at Into the Wild Wood.

This isn’t a home-ed-only group, but home edders are welcome.

Into the Wild Wood

Drawing of woodland. Mostly green, with dark green leaves in the foreground, and a bird flying away up ahead.

Sessions led by Lauren Kinnersley, a Steiner Waldorf trained practitioner who is Level 3 Forest School trained, supported by staff from the school. Sessions include storytelling, tool use, games and nature crafts. Maximum group size is 10.

Bigger map showing the Iona School.

Access info:

At Iona there is a compost toilet and the site is accessible with paved paths. We have a maximum group size of 10 with two adults supporting. Parents do not normally stay at the sessions, but if your child has a particular support need, parents are invited to stay and support their child to enable them to participate.

Nearest bus stop: “Skipton Circus”, on the 43 route, Red Line.

Parking: There is parking at the school.

Forest School at Broxtowe Country Park, Wednesday mornings, free

Update July 2017: This group has finished for the time being, as the ranger has moved to a different park. You can check the Facebook page to see if it’s re-starting in another location.

Date: Wednesday mornings in term time.

Time: 10am to 12 noon.

Venue: Meet by the gate of Phoenix Park Adventure Playground, 52a, Westleigh Road, Nottingham, NG8 6JY.

Venue update: “the meeting location has now changed. It is now at the new park entrance, by the BMX track. Postcode: NG8 6GT“. I.e. the entrance at the end of Alwyn Road, where it meets Woodfield Road & Lindfield Road.

Area: Edge of Broxtowe Country Park, Broxtowe.

Age range: “Any age, but need to be able to concentrate and follow guidance, as we may have fire, tools etc.”

Price: Free, as it’s run by a Park Ranger.

Organiser: alastair dot glenn at nottinghamcity dot gov dot uk.

Facebook page for Forest School at Broxtowe Country Park

Booking: No need to book, just turn up. The Facebook page is visible to anyone, whether or not they’ve got a Facebook account, so you may want to have a look first to see if there’s anything special happening that week, or check for last-minute cancellations.

A path ahead is blocked by a bright green metalwork double gate made of plant-like shapes. Above the gate is a decorative metal sign reading "Phoenix Adventure Playground". To the right is an opening where a person could walk through but bike handlebars would be stopped by the metal frame. The edges of two houses show, one each side of the path. Trees are silhouetted in the distance. A less decorative sign in the background labels it as "Broxtowe Country Park and Phoenix Adventure Play Area", and shows some icons, but the icons are too far away to decode properly by this photo.

From Alastair, the Park Ranger:

Term time, Wednesdays 10am-12pm.

Run by Broxtowe Park Ranger Alastair Glenn. I have much more experience running activities for older children (10yrs+) but anybody is welcome and hopefully we can learn and have fun together!

From a home ed parent:

It’s our favourite activity during the week! Very nice to be in a wild park, in a different age group of home ed kids, and do some nature crafts and educational projects, games and free play. Welcome!

From another home ed parent:

We really love it. The kids have really got into it. We don’t make it every week, but they miss it if we don’t.

Alistair is great with my very shy kids. He has encouraged them and engaged with them. When we go, they talk about it for the rest of the day.

Physical access:

Mostly off the path, may be rough/wet ground. No toilets on site (plenty of trees).

Map showing the entrance to the park that’s the (updated) meetup point:

Full page larger map of the same thing.

Nearest bus stops (updated to reflect new meeting point): “Denton Green”, on the 78 route, Turquoise Line, or “Coleby Road Top” which is on either the 78 route or the 35 bus, Orange Line. These are about 300 yards from the park entrance meetup point, near the roundabout at the other end of Alwyn Road.

(Note that some families will already know that roundabout as the home of Nottingham City Gymnastics Club.)

Next nearest: The 77 bus, Turquoise Line, stops at “Flamsteed Road”, about 800 yards west of the meetup point.

Parking: There’s on-street parking on nearby roads.