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(transcribed by AI so there maybe some small errors!)

What if wild, not domesticated, should be our normal, instead of factory farmed lives? What if you could cultivate fulfilling lives and contribute to a healthy natural world?

The wild minds podcast is brought to you by me. Marina Robb an author, social entrepreneur, Forest School and nature-based trainer and consultant and pioneer in developing green programs for the health service in the UK, join me as I discover new perspectives on what it is to be a human in a more than human world, challenging dominant paradigms, finding ways to be kinder on ourselves and harder on the system. I'm also the founder of the outdoor teacher and creator of practical online Forest School, outdoor learning and nature-based trainings for people in health, education and business, tune in for interviews, insights, cutting edge and actionable approaches to help you to improve your relationship with yourself, others and the natural world.

Welcome to Episode 52 the Advanced Certificate in Forest School and outdoor learning in today's episode, I'm diving into why my Advanced Certificate in forest and outdoor learning is a game changer for educators and practitioners, I'll share insights from masterclasses on sensory integration, mental health and deepening nature connection, and offer practical steps to bring this into your practice. With all the statistics on mental health, climate awareness and educational trends, I'll also share why I think young people need to access nature and all the benefits and how outdoor learning inspires agency and creates meaningful Change for both people and the planet.

Welcome to Episode 52 I'm going to share a little bit of gratitude for this particular time of year. It's just the very beginning of spring, and I know it doesn't feel like that yet, because February is often so cold and full of storms, and the feeling of spring feels a long way. And yet, actually on the land beneath the soil, lots has already been happening to prepare for the new growth, to prepare for the possibility of life. And what I love about this work is that when you tune into the seasons, which is like our natural blueprint, as humans, as animals, we can start to feel and learn from the natural world. So for me, just as a short remembering of the time before Christmas, when the seeds have been placed onto the land from the plants and has now been buried into the cold earth, and yet they're still alive, even though they may be frozen, there's still Just enough heat, just enough fire in them to keep yourself or the plants or the seeds alive.

And why I'm saying that is because sometimes in the winter, when we feel the winter, whether that's emotionally a winter or a physical winter, having just enough light, just enough fire to keep us going, is exactly what we need. So often this deeper work, therapeutic work, is about understanding and knowing what resources us, what gives us enough of that fire to last, to keep us going to be active. So this is a time of year where action is beginning to be possible. So what is it that we need to resource us for the year ahead? And I'll leave you with that thought and that consideration, that just like the plants, we too can continually and continually come back to ask, what resources. Courses what actually works for us. So today I want to talk about a course that I created, and it's called the Advanced Certificate in Forest School and outdoor learning.

And I've been involved in creating lots of different courses over my lifetime, and I really felt there was a need for those practitioners out there, teachers, people that work with groups, to have a blueprint, if you like, for taking the practice outdoors. So if you're a teacher, how do you actually take what you're doing outdoors, and what's the purpose? Can it be one for actually extending the learning opportunity through subjects, for example, and bringing that into the outdoors? Or is it more about wellness and self-esteem, all hugely important ingredients for our life, right? How do we learn? What helps us to learn and what helps us to keep well?

So this certificate is really aimed at teachers, at people who are working in schools, although there's a huge range of activities, of practices, things that you'll do again and again that bring a host of wellbeing, physical, emotional impacts to those people's lives. So what is outdoor learning? You probably hear about it a lot, and really, essentially, outdoor learning is a very broad term that includes any learning that takes place outdoors. Now, in this certificate I have, I think it's something like 16 master classes that go into depth about these different areas. I'm going to speak to them a little bit in this podcast, but one is really looking at outdoor learning and how you can take multiple of subjects, whether that's Maths, English, obviously, physical education, history and apply that in the outdoors.

And immediately, what I want you to think about is the possibility of that rather than being in a classroom and being taught in what is described really as a very didactic approach, with a teacher standing at the front and giving knowledge to the children, this is a whole different way in my view of working. Certainly, the way I approach outdoor learning is to involve the group in involve their thinking skills, involve their critical thinking skills, and involve their collaborative skills, their problem-solving skills, and involve the body in moving, making it active, making it experiential, making it a quest, lots of questions that they can solve, and bringing it alive.

The sub often, if you take a subject outdoors, you can bring it alive. So that's one of the things that we want to focus on, is how we how we can bring the educational experience into a far more active, participatory approach, which has, as I say, lots of benefit benefits, which I'll speak about in little bit. And then the other aspect is for a school. And again, we do a master class on what is for a school, what is this approach? Why are 1000s and 1000s of schools bringing this approach into mainstream education in the UK.

Now, again, there's so much I can speak about this actual approach, which I'm not going to do right now, because I'm just touching on some of the benefits and what it is, and to hopefully entice you to have a little bit more of a look at the outdoor teacher website and have a look at this course for yourself. So for a school is different in the sense it's focusing much more on wellness, on the wholeness of the child than it is on what specific thing we want as an outcome for them to learn. So Forest School is seen as a child centered inspirational learning process. Now, whenever I hear child centered, it's putting the child, the whole child, at the center of their experience. I like to use the word person centered as well, because it's looking at that individual person and trying to meet their needs and to see what engages them and what's meaningful for them and what's inspiring for them, which, of course, means we're going to have less people in a group, because we can't do that when we've got 30 34 children and one teacher. But there are lots of opportunities from looking at this approach that's. Informed by many theorists over time, and drawing that out and bringing that into our everyday teaching or other forms of practice of working with groups.

So Forest School offers opportunities for holistic growth through regular sessions. When we talk about holistic growth. We're really looking at developing different aspects of ourselves. It could be our physical selves, it could be our emotional selves, it could be our cognitive selves, it could be our spiritual selves, it could be our communication selves, developing these different aspects and growing them, rather than what is often seen in certainly Primary and Secondary School is focusing on your thinking skills and your intellectual capacity. But actually, we need, we know that we need to develop all kinds of aspects of ourselves to be whole, to be well, to have fulfilling and meaningful lives, which is why this model is so effective and so in my view, necessary for the development of a healthy individual.

So Forest School offers all learners regular opportunities to achieve and develop confidence and self-esteem through hands on learning experiences in a woodland or natural environment with trees. Now we could unpack confidence and self-esteem, and I like the word self-worth, really knowing that you have worth, that you're a core belief that you have worth, which is really difficult, actually in our society and in our families to grow up with that sense of worth, and we need opportunities to feel that we have this intrinsic sense of we're good enough, and that links very, very strongly to mental health and how poor our mental health is actually in the UK. So by using and applying our physicality and our bodies, we can actually, slowly and surely develop a sense of I can do it, and that develops a sense of confidence.

And when you're in a group that is supporting you and actually creates safe enough containers where you can be yourself and actually be accepted as yourself and have a good sense of belonging, then this all contributes with the development of confidence and the developments as so many of us will speak about with the knowledge that we often don't feel confident. And what do we do? What is the what are the kind of protective factors that allow us to feel a sense of, oh, that didn't work out, or I don't know how to do that, and then reach out for help and support ourselves to build a skill. For example, there's a lot of levels to this, and when we say hands on, experience so well, there's a range of ways that we can engage our bodies, through crafting, through building, through creativity, through actually, literally engagement and touch with the natural elements that exist, whether that's water or mud, there's a lot of experiences and sensations that come from this, hands on learning.

And in my view, it doesn't have to happen in a woodland. There is a range and multitude of opportunities to offer outdoor practice, be that on the edge of a field, on a beach, in garden, in a park, yes, it needs to be outside. Yes, there needs to be certain opportunities in that space. But sometimes we can bring in resources to enable more diverse experience. So just because you're in an urban setting or in a concrete playground, there are lots of opportunities, and it's this kind of mix of both resources and what's available and you as a facilitator holding a space that is welcoming, that is conscious of your own internal processes of how you're holding that group, which is another master class of really looking at how you hold groups and manage your own response. Us to enable people to feel safe enough, and when we're safe enough, we're much, much more likely to thrive.

So this is all encompassed in what is for a school, and I can't really speak to this practice without naming attachment. Now we know the value of emotional attachment, feeling that we have an attachment to a caregiver, and so many people are brought up with dysfunctional, distorted attachments, and there's a whole set of names for this that we anew could do further research around however, there's something in my direct experience of having a relationship with a place, of repeatedly going out to the same place, that creates a different kind of attachment, which Is attachment to place and to this living system and something that is deeply resourcing to us as animals on this planet, and being outdoors, going through these cycles of the seasons, of the different temperatures, of the light the dark. All these natural cycles both have a physiological effect, and they also have an emotional effect of finding ourselves in a different relationship that isn't just with the human world.

So these repeated experiences are very powerful, and whether or not we're conscious of it or not, we are also on a journey, on a site, on a cycle, you know, from growing from when we're young and the needs to touch, to play, to be in our bodies, to have Big noises and small noises and full expression and that kind of reflecting in nature, that rising sap of spring and how things grow so fast, and then the turning of the seasons as they fruit and develop into the seed, where I began this podcast about so this certificate, goes into this in depth, but I often speak in the podcast in a much more theoretical way, because I'm using words.

All what I do in practice and in courses actually is practical, because in some ways, the understanding using our brain is just one, as I say, one aspect of what we bring. But really, we need to feel it. We need to be in our body and have those actual sensations. And this is the key also to really good mental health is to have a wider reach of what you could say is emotional literacy, but it isn't the language of emotions. It's the language of sensations and feelings, which is in our bodies, which is why so much informed trauma, informed practice, has to come back to our body and our sensations, and giving ourselves the opportunity for a different experience than the one that traumatized us and being In the container of the natural world is hugely therapeutic. For that, these relationships are often relationships that haven't harmed us, which is one of the reasons it's so beneficial.

So let's have a little think about some of the statistics that we know, that over 18% of children aged seven to 16 years and 22% of young people aged 17 to 24 years. This is actually a statistic from the NHS in 2022 have a probable mental disorder, and this is rising, and we could ask ourselves, well, why is this happening? Why are so many more of us, more anxious, more depressed, and there are going to be many reasons for that, personal reasons, family situations, economic reasons, experiencing stress, poverty. There's going to be direct experiences of trauma. There's going to be a society that's not supporting us to look after ourselves, our whole selves, they're only interested in certain aspects of ourselves.

So there's lots of reasons, and of course, not to mention, or the need to mention, the amount of hours and hours that we're in front of screens which go. Perhaps, in itself, might not be a problem, but certainly what we're not experiencing when we're on screens all the time is probably much greater issue that we're sitting we're not moving. We know the research says we have to move a child a minimum of 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity a day, a minimum. How often are we really doing that? And how does that work out in our in our school life, and how important to bring in?

And we like keep saying we can bring it in within the delivery of our subjects, or if we're fortunate enough to have the opportunity to set up a forest school, then we can bring that in, get access to the body moving in that period of time. So the statistics are quite stark, and it's strange to me, because when we ask young people for what they want and what they think they want to spend more time outdoors. There's a statistic of 91% of students in the UK agree that it is important to look after the planet nature and animals. And it does just dumbfound me sometimes to think, well, the children know what's good for them, they know what is needed. And we somehow, as adults that have more power, are not listening to that, and they're not actually supporting what the children are telling us, you know?

And there's something about when the system and the children start to show us, then, and we don't listen, that there's something that's really super unhealthy, and I can go into feeling overwhelmed. I've Express, expressed that in other podcasts, but for now, just accepting that actually, there is a real call from our children to do something about this and to support a curriculum that meets their needs, and to know that when we actually give children opportunities to make decisions, to have agency, to have choice and consent, that this really builds the kind of self, inner world, that I can do this, that there, that I do matter, that my voice really does count, and it also allows us to experience other.

In this case, the natural world is also having value and importance. So we know this. I think there that there is a growing awareness that something is very wrong in our society, that we are not able to keep our children and the natural world safe well enough, not toxic, and I don't want to go down into that too much. Instead, what I want is to enable, give people the skills and the practices to actually do something step by step, bring it into their own practice, so that at least what we're doing is contributing to the health and wellbeing of the children that we're working with.

So, let's have a little bit of a look at some of the other master classes. So in the work, in this certificate, amongst you know, 120 videos of practices and activities that you can bring in, as well as all the downloads and everything else that goes along with that. So I'm making it easy, because I know that both health practitioners and teachers have little time. So I wanted to create something that people can pick up and go with, but underpinned by really healthy values. So we have a master class in mental health and understanding behavior, and we know that when young people are well and feel confident and have moved, have had the experience of being in the body and through the senses, from touch, smell, sense of balance and movement that they are then much, much more able because they developed their ability to sit well through balance, they've used their hands so they can then write, for example, that this can all be brought back into understanding their behavior and their readiness to learn, if you understand so mental health, being well and having young.

People where their needs are met really brings much more likelihood of positive behavior, people enjoying each other's company and not having to exhibit distressed behavior in order to get their needs met. So there's a whole master class on mental health and understanding behavior. There's a whole master class on how we bring in best practice for deepening nature connection. So that's drawing on Earth, education activities people now commonly like forest bathing activities, which are really senses based activities. How we can bring that in for our health? The master class in green care and nature-based practice, a master class in why the activities and the senses can actually bring us and help us to support our own personal development as well as our integration with the senses.

And of course, that's so valuable for special educational needs as well, which are often exhibiting distress or an inability to do something because we're not consciously aware of what their needs are, their sensory needs. So let's have a look at why it's so beneficial to be outdoors, and just some thoughts and ideas around that. Just in case you're thinking, why? You know? Why do this? People learn in different ways. So being active is so beneficial. People need to enjoy learning. Enjoying learning helps us retain information. We know that giving greater choice helps build this intrinsic worth and self-esteem and brings us into adults who can actually know what is the best path to follow for them, because they know themselves better. Outdoors, there's so much more space you get to use up excess energy so they are not fidgeting all the time and unable to focus. It affords so much opportunity for talking and social skills and practicing social engagement, and one of our core needs, our core ways of regulating us, our nervous system, is to be socially engaged, to have people in relationships that are positive, that help you bring out the oxytocin, so that your body is filled with that hormone, and you feel good hormone, right?

And it, of course, enables you to try challenges and risks and go beyond that comfort zone into the learning zone, not so far that you freeze and you disassociate. I think what's happening to some of these big issues like climate change is that it's just too overwhelming that we disassociate. We can't stay within our windows of tolerance to feel because it's too much. It's too big, and we haven't learned the capacity to hold our anger, our grief, our strong feelings in our body without kind of flipping the lid, as they say, or going into something that's too much. So we need to practice regulation and being able to express those feelings as you know, I keep going on about this, we know that when we spend time moving in outdoors, as long as those spaces are safe, right, that we absolutely expand our capacity for wellness. So it seems crazy for me that we are not bringing this in to every child's experience to make sure that we're setting them up for a healthy life and a meaningful life. So just to kind of bring it back, a lot of practitioners worry that they're not qualified enough, or they don't have the resources, and that these things are too risky, and I will often say that a lot of people's lives are much more risky.

So just to hold that to the side, and to know that if, certainly in the UK are our health and safety executive are really supportive that they say that the law is often used as an excuse to stop children taking part in exciting activities. But when we manage the risk, it's really good for them. And again, this course has a whole. Masterclass on how you write risk benefit assessments, where we look at the benefits of everything we're doing, and really get to see that. So we're not having to worry about justifying play based approach, or justifying our general approach, of taking our practice outside, because it's in our paperwork already. So we've got our benefits, and then we look at how we assess risk, how we look at when we need to bring in control measures, and how we do that, with the whole group. And we know that these risky activities engage their imagination and helps them to learn, and it helps them to learn to manage risks.

It helps a flexibility to deal with uncertainty. And certainly our future is increasingly uncertain, and it helps us to actually manage. Us manage our feelings, as I say, and actually lean in work with others. And there's so many examples of teachers being so surprised when you actually take children outdoors, they see a whole different side of the young person and how capable they are at so many things that they weren't able to show in a classroom setting. So really gives us the opportunity to blossom and show that we do have all these other areas of ourselves that are valuable and important that make up who we are, right.

So I think I'm going to leave you with that these are some of the things that are involved, both in the Advanced Certificate in Forest School and outdoor learning, but they're involved in this field of work. So for me, I really think it's important that we bring more of this into our educational systems. And I think it's important that we bring it into our health systems, at least, so that more and more people can have access to green spaces and reap the benefits for their own health and well, being alongside bringing in practices that really take care of our natural systems. Because I know if, well, if you're listening to me, then you are part of this community that sees the potential of bringing in these kinds of practices.

And you know, part of the current and future communities that we're trying to bring in as much as possible. Thank you very much for listening. Thank you so much for tuning in. I hope today's episode has inspired you to explore further the power of outdoor learning in Forest School. Make sure you join us for our next episode where I'll be talking with the incredible Robb Hopkins, founder of the transition movement. Robb is a visionary leader in creating sustainable, resilient communities, and will share his insights on reimagining our futures with creativity, optimism and practical action.

Thank you for listening to this episode of The Wild Minds Podcast. If you enjoyed it and want to help support this podcast, please subscribe, share and leave a rating and review wherever you get your podcasts. Your review will help others find the show.

To stay updated with The Wild Minds Podcast and get all the behind-the-scenes content. You can visit the www.theoutdoorteacher.com or follow me on Facebook at theoutdoorteacherUK and LinkedIn, Marina Robb.
The music was written and performed by Geoff Robb. See you next week. Same time, same place.