
Episode 101:
The Children Are Ready - Are We?
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Hosted by: Marina Robb
Show Notes:
In this episode, Marina looks back at the questions that came up at the *Outside for Everyone* webinar and asks why we adults find it so hard to take learning outdoors, and what we can do about it.
In this episode:
- Why experiential learning sticks, and why we still find it so hard to take education outside
- "Backlinking": Juliet Robertson's idea of offering hands-on outdoor activities and linking them to the curriculum afterwards
- How outdoor learning fits the early years, primary and secondary curriculum, from mud kitchens and story stones to measuring trees with trigonometry
- Climate education in practice: soil tests, watching the weather with the Beaufort scale, plant surveys and growing food
- Tool use, vocational skills and confidence, and why hands-on skills matter for future careers
- Contribution as a core part of belonging and wellbeing
- What research on autistic children at Forest School tells us: the adults' attitudes can make or break a session
- Why our practice is about relationship, not activity: consent-based practice, mutual dignity and humility
- Do you need a qualification to take learning outdoors? (No, but you do need to be competent, reflect on your practice and carry out risk-benefit assessments)
- Worried about losing control? How routines, rituals and clear boundaries help, and how to help children explain their thinking
- Shaping the session around the learner, not the learner around the session, with nature as the "third actor"
- Starting small with five-minute activities, managing large class ratios and giving teenagers real-life experiences (including the new Natural History GCSE)
Music by Geoff Robb: www.geoffrobb.com
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6 Free Forest School Lessons You Can Deliver With Confidence
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After these lessons you will:
- Feel clearer about how to structure outdoor sessions
- Understand how to hold risk thoughtfully
- Begin linking activities to developmental and curriculum aims


