Boots & Brambles Forest School

01/11/2024

🎆 🔥 🌺 Celebrating November in all her glory! 🎆 🔥 🌺

🎆 It seems that as soon as Halloween is over, there's a rush to focus on all things festive. Here at Boots & Brambles we love to take time to celebrate each month for the unique changes and festivities that they bring.

🔥 This month we will be celebrating Bonfire Night, commemorating Remembrance Day and exploring the changes that autumn and the approach of winter brings to the woods.🍂

🌳🍂 Our unique, outdoor playgroup and Forest School sessions restart on Monday 4th November and run on Mondays & Fridays throughout school term time 🍂🌳

🌳🍂Join us in our beautiful woods for lots of outdoor fun this November; swing in our hammock, mix up a treat in the mud kitchen, share stories around our campfire circle! 🌳🍂
🍂Sessions can be booked individually or as a half term block

🌳No upper or lower age limit

🍂Sibling discount

📍 St Peter's Church Centre Woodland, Tollerton Lane, Tollerton, NG12 4FT

☕️ Hot drinks & refreshments included

🔥 Campfire snacks

🍂Book via our website

31/10/2024

🎃 🦇Celebrations, sustainability & STUFF🎃🦇

We LOVE to celebrate seasonal festivals here . But each year it seems that celebrations become bigger and more commercial, often bringing increased cost and more - usually plastic - "stuff!"

💚As Forest School Practitioners and parents, we are passionate about the natural world and very conscious about the impact we humans have upon it. Everywhere children go nowadays they come back with "stuff" whether that be from a party bag, a lunch out, or a day trip. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has drawers full of plastic tat that seem to just seem to appear!💚

It can be so hard, in today's modern, fast paced society, when we are all SO busy and working hard to take time to stop and look at the impact we are having. There's many a time I've bought something online as it's easier and will arrive the next day, many of us (me included!)don't have the sewing skills my grandmother's generation had to whip up an outfit

This year we've tried hard to focus on making our celebrations, both at home and at work, simple and sustainable (with less "stuff!")

We are by NO means experts and are constantly learning and adapting our practice! Here's a few changes we've made this year;

1.)🎃 In previous years we've bought several pumpkins to decorate the woods - this year we've reduced the amount of pumpkins we have for "decoration" and once used these will be given to our chicken / the wildlings' school farm.

2.)🦇 We've not bought any new decorations but spent time making decorations out of wood offcuts we had at home!

3.)🎃 We've used ribbon collected from our amazing local scrapstore The Rushcliffe Play Forum to make bunting to decorate the woods.

4.)🕸 In previous years we've used fake cobwebs (which we've since learnt can pose hazards to the natural world as creatures can get tangled in them, try to use them as nests or ingest them) so we no longer use these in the woods.

5.) 🐦One year we used slime in the woods, the next day we arrived to find a LOT of feathers in the slime. A poor unsuspecting bird had obviously landed in our tray and become stuck. Luckily the bird had managed to escape, but not before losing several feathers. A stark and heartbreaking reminder to be mindful of our impact on the natural world whose space we inhabit

6.)🎃 We have reduced the amount of plastic items we use in the woods, again we have found that these can get easily broken, or lost and can then pose a threat to the animals in our woods

7.)🦇 Our costumes this year have all been created from what we had, borrowed or brought from charity shops

8.) 🎃To try and reduce single use plastic, we have made paper sweet bags for our Trick or Treating gifts this year.

9.) Instead of giving out sweets for prizes in our Halloween Hunt, children could choose their own wooden wand or pumpkin decorations.

🎃We are by NO means experts and I'm fully aware that my wildlings will come back from Trick or Treating with bags full of single use plastic! But hoping we can do just one tiny bit to reduce waste and make celebrations more sustainable this Halloween 🎃

30/10/2024

🎃🦇 We've had an AMAZING few days at Boots & Brambles Forest School running our Half Term Halloween Sessions!

🎃🦇 We started the week with our Family Halloween Session for all ages, followed by two days of Halloween Holiday Clubs! 🦇🎃

🦇🎃 A HUGE thank you to everyone who has joined us in the woods this week! Please feel free to share any pictures!

🎃🦇 Our next special events will be our Festive Family Sessions & Winter Solstice Event which are now open for booking via our website

🪵🍄 All of our regular weekly sessions will restart next week and run up to the Xmas holidays - all bookings can be made via our website

🎃🦇Happy Halloween Boots & Bramblers! 🦇🎃

28/10/2024

🎃 🦇 An awesome start to our Halloween Sessions today at Boots & Brambles Forest School A HUGE thank you to everyone who came along - please share any photos in the comments! 🎃 🦇

27/10/2024

🎃 🧙‍♀️ A beautiful afternoon in the woods yesterday celebrating a long-awaited 3rd birthday! A HUGE thanks to everyone who attended- feel free to add any pictures from yesterday's party in the comments! 🎃

🎉🌳Party bookings for Jan - March 2025 are NOW OPEN on our website www.bootsandbrambles.com 🎉🌳

25/10/2024

🪵 🍄 Did you know? We run our Forest School sessions ALL YEAR round - and that includes our Parent & Child group! As the Autumn and Winter months draw near, don't forget about outdoor groups! 🍁❄️

Now we are in October, I see SO many posts about hibernating and hunkering down for the winter! And many invitations from indoor spaces to "come indoors out of the rain/cold"

🍁But as the days grow shorter and inevitably colder (and wetter) it's even more important to spend time outdoors!

🍁Our outdoor groups run all year round, through Autumn and Winter - there are so many benefits for all ages in spending time out in nature, in all weather. ❄️

💚So many of our parents comment on colder/wetter days that they are glad they've booked on to a session, that it's made them spend time outdoors, when otherwise they would have stayed in, that the weather often looks "worse" from behind a window. When mine were littler we used to love spending a few hours out in the woods on a cold/wet day, then coming home, having a bath and snuggling down for the afternoon! 💚

Our sessions are very relaxed, so you are welcome to arrive and leave as you wish - you know best when your little one has had their fill of the outdoors especially on a colder day! Even just a short blast outdoors can be so beneficial!

🪵 🍄 Our Parent & Child sessions run on Mondays & Fridays throughout school term times, so grab those wellies, stick on some layers, bring along your travel mug for a cuppa and come and join us for lots of outdoor fun this autumn and winter 🍁❄️

❄️🍁 Our new term starts on Monday 4th November- book via our website

24/10/2024

💚Keeping it simple and sustainable this season 🎃

🍁🎃 I LOVE the season of autumn and the festival of Halloween, but what I find harder and harder each year is the fact that each season gets bigger, more commercial and more social media-worthy!

🍁My social media feeds are full of "autumnal doorway displays" Halloween, which as a child meant one family pumpkin, a homemade costume and my mum's iced spiderweb jelly is now HUGE! 🕸

Nowadays pumpkin picking is a big thing (pretty sure it didn't exist when we were young!) And now it's not just picking a pumpkin, but a whole day experience with rides, food and plenty of photo opportunities. With each changing season we can now purchase seasonal themed clothes, food, "boxes" home decor - you name it! 🎃 🍁 I'm not at all saying people shouldn't celebrate as they choose, but nowadays there's so much pressure to go ALL out!

🍁🍂 Don't get me wrong, I'm not at all against celebrating the seasons or traditions, in fact I love it! But sometimes I feel the simple pleasure of celebrating and experiencing the season is getting lost in a whirlwind of matching seasonal themed jumpers and spiced lattes and with this comes increasing cost and plastic waste.🍁🍂

🍁🍂We love to celebrate and decorate at Halloween, but I have a battle with this and keeping things simple and sustainable, especially at work.
Here are a few ways we are trying to do this in our sessions:

🎃Focusing on simple, nature-based crafts & activities
♻️Using recycled items (utilising our awesome local scrapstore!)
🎃Reducing the number of pumpkins we use and using as much of the pumpkin as possible
♻️Reducing the amount of plastic we use in the woods
🎃Encouraging the use of travel mugs - if you are coming to a session this half term, remember to bring your travel mug along for your hot drink

(Still yet to find a solution to the single use plastic that comes with trick or treating! 🎃)

We'd love to hear your ideas on keeping things simple and sustainable this Halloween! 🎃

23/10/2024

💚Weekends are for the woods! Join us this Saturday 26th October 10-12 when we will be getting outdoors again for our monthly Into the Woods with Zephyr’s morning of seasonal crafts, hot chocolate, play and support.💚

These woodland activities are for bereaved family members of all ages; for children whose brother or sister has died, some who knew their sibling well, others who may have been born after the loss in the family, or may not yet know...

These sessions are for others too; cousins, grandparents, aunts, uncles and friends - with chance to come along and be together outside in a space where there's no pressure to talk, but where everyone there has been through or is going through a similar situation.

There are books and grief resources available, there's always someone from Zephyr’s there to chat to or share how you're doing and you can find out about our other services too.

Run by us here and the local charity this wonderful collaboration has been running for over a year and a half. You can come along as and when you're able, or every time, it's up to you. There's always something new to do as well as the familiar toys and our woods to explore too.

Free to attend for anyone bereaved through pregnancy loss or the death of a baby or child

https://www.bootsandbrambles.com/products/into-the-woods-with-zephyrs/

21/10/2024

🌳🔥"But what are they missing in school when they are out playing in the woods! Forest School is fun, but what are they ACTUALLY learning!?"🔥🌳

🌳🔥Years ago when I first started running weekly Forest School sessions in the primary school I worked in, a parent asked me the question above! A valuable question, and one I love to answer!🌳🔥

🏫Today in schools, there are so many subjects to fit in, targets to meet, so much pressure to make academic progress. As an ex-teacher, I take my (woolly!) hat off to anyone who is in this profession!

We are lucky to work with so many local schools; through both our mainstream and special school sessions as well as our SEMH Intervention which runs in collaboration with the Rushcliffe Primary Partnership.

Each time I run Staff Training, it's hard to put into words, just what the children learn, I often have to say "You'll see!"

🌳Through Forest School, children are able to learn in a different environment, using different approaches to a school. As well as learning practical, hands on skills such as tool use, shelter building, flora and fauna ID, children learn fundamental life skills such as perseverance, determination, independence and resilience. 🪵 🍄

At Forest School there is both the time and space for children to play, learn, create and explore in a natural, alternative setting. There are no "working towards" or "age related expectations" in the woods! Children are free to be children, and it's amazing to see just how much they learn!

In January 2025 we have availability to take on some new schools/groups, we offer both stand alone and termly sessions, please contact us for more information.

Don't just take our word for it, hear what some if our schools have to say...

"There is something magical about seeing the joy on our children's faces as they play in Forest School. When they look back on their time at Millside we hope they remember the happy memories they made in our woods, playing with their friends and exploring nature. "

"Thank you Fran at Boots & Brambles Forest School for facilitating our Forest School provision and supporting the development of our children 💚"

"We love our Forest School days with Fran!"

18/10/2024

🍁🍂Autumn Term 1 ✅️
We've had a fantastic first term here & Brambles!

We've explored late summer and harvest, foraged for damsons, blackberries and apples and reaped the rewards of our foraging through making damson jam, making blackberry tie dye and campfire apples! 🍎🫐

We've made conker runs, conker spiders and conker comets and finished the term exploring autumn leaves and pumpkins! 🍁 🎃

We've had sun, wind, fog and rain!

We've met some new explorers as they discover our woods for the first time and welcomed back some familiar faces! 🪵 🍄

We've enjoyed welcoming back our school groups from Nethergate Academy and Millside Spencer Academy and enjoyed meeting our new cohort from Cotgrave C of E!

Our new SEMH projects for 2024 - 2025 have started with our groups spending a whole day out in the woods each week!

Thank you to everyone who has attended our sessions this term! 🌳💚

We have a two week break for the October Half Term and all of our weekly sessions will restart on Monday 4th November and run up to the Xmas holidays! 🎆

🎃🦇There's lots going on for ALL ages over the Half Term - our Halloween Family Session on 28th October and Holiday Club on 29th are now SOLD OUT but the last few spaces are available in our Holiday Club on Wednesday 30th October

🪵 🍄 Happy Half Term! We'd love to see your favourite photos from this term!

17/10/2024

🎃 🦇 UPDATE on our HALF TERM EVENTS 🦇 🎃

🦇 Halloween Family Session - Monday 28th October 10.30-12 - SOLD OUT

🎃 Halloween Holiday Club - Tuesday 29th October 10-3 - LIMITED PLACES

🎃 Halloween Holiday Club - Wednesday 30th October 10-3 - LIMITED PLACES

Book via our website www.bootsandbrambles.com

16/10/2024

🎃 🧙‍♀️ We've been having lots of fun in the woods this week at Boots & Brambles Forest School in the last of our weekly sessions before October Half Term!

We've had...
🎃 Pumpkin carving
🕷 Conker spiders
🕸 Stick webs
🧙‍♀️ Stick broomsticks
And LOTS more!

🎃 There's one last chance to join us this Friday before our school and Parent & Child sessions finish for a two week break...

🎃 But never fear, we have LOTS going on for ALL ages over the Half Term and our school and Parent & Child sessions restart on Monday 4th November and run right up to the Xmas holidays!

💚🌳 Our Into the Woods with Zephyr’s Family Session for bereaved families after the loss of a baby or child takes place on Saturday 26th October in collaboration with awesome local charity Zephyr's

All bookings are made via our website

10/10/2024

💚This week is Baby Loss Awareness Week. Here at Boots & Brambles Forest School we are beyond proud to work alongside the amazing local charity Zephyr's who support bereaved families after the loss of a baby or child. After losing our baby girl at five days old, we were so grateful to find support and friendship through Zephyr’s which continues to this day.💚

This is "Zephyr's - Into the woods" by besq on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

09/10/2024

🪵 🍄 There's SO much happening at Boots & Brambles Forest School this Autumn!

Our weekly Parent & Child sessions continue on Mondays & Fridays during school term time! 🪵 🍄

🎃 Our October Half Term sessions are running on 28th, 29th & 30th October 🎃

🪵 🍄 Join us in our beautiful woodland site in Tollerton this autumn for lots of outdoor fun, whatever the weather!

06/10/2024

🪵 🍄 Did you know? 🪵 🍄

🌳 We offer Forest School sessions either at your site or in our Base Camp.

We have some limited availability in January 2025.

We offer stand alone Forest School sessions or can link sessions to your curriculum where appropriate. 🍄

We are experienced Forest School Leaders with enhanced DBS and Outdoor First Aid qualifications. We have a wealth of experience working in both mainstream and special schools and running SEMH Intervention sessions. 🌳

Please contact us for more information.

Don't just take our word for it...
Here's what our schools have to say...

"We love our Forest School days with Fran!"

"There is something magical about seeing the joy on our children's faces as they play in Forest School. When they look back on their time at Millside we hope they remember the happy memories they made in our woods, playing with their friends and exploring nature."

"Thank you Fran from Boots & Brambles Forest School for facilitating our Forest School provision and supporting the development of our children 💚"

05/10/2024

🍁As the Autumn and Winter months draw near, don't forget about outdoor groups! ❄️

Now we are in October, I see SO many posts about hibernating and hunkering down for the winter! And many invitations from indoor spaces to "come indoors out of the rain/cold"

🍁But as the days grow shorter and inevitably colder (and wetter) it's even more important to spend time outdoors!🍁

🍁Our outdoor groups run all year round, through Autumn and Winter - there are so many benefits for all ages in spending time out in nature, in all weather. ❄️

💚So many of our parents comment on colder/wetter days that they are glad they've booked on to a session, that it's made them spend time outdoors, when otherwise they would have stayed in, that the weather often looks "worse" from behind a window. When mine were littler we used to love spending a few hours out in the woods on a cold/wet day, then coming home, having a bath and snuggling down for the afternoon! 💚

Our sessions are very relaxed, so you are welcome to arrive and leave as you wish - you know best when your little one has had their fill of the outdoors especially on a colder day! Even just a short blast outdoors can be so beneficial!

Our Parent & Child sessions run on Mondays & Fridays throughout school term times, so grab those wellies, stick on some layers, bring along your travel mug for a cuppa and come and join us for lots of outdoor fun this autumn and winter! 🥾

03/10/2024

🪢 Knots or Nots? 🪢
I see LOTS of posts on Forest School pages asking for ideas on how to teach knots or asking for suggestions of which knots to teach children.

Knots are incredibly useful for so many things, however, they can be tricky to remember and to teach! I know I was taught several knots in my training, but I couldn't show you them all now, let alone remember their names!!

The best way we have found is to let children explore knots through a variety of activities, to be able to see their different uses firsthand; this week we have introduced knots with our new groups, but we focused not on giving instructions, but letting the group explore, play and experiment!

We've made our own knot boards and tried out joining two pieces of cord together, we've had a go at Nordic Weaving and paracord bracelets, we've had "magic knots" and knot challenges!

It's been so lovely to see the children and adults exploring knots, to see children teaching other children and adults, to watch children developing a practical skill through hands on learning!

During our session today one child learnt how to tie a knot for the first time and by lunchtime presented me with a whole collection of knots to undo as a challenge!

🪢 It's been fun, challenging, exciting and "knot" at all boring! 🪢

28/09/2024

🎉🌳 A beautiful afternoon for a woodland party! 🎉🌳

🐻 🧸 We went on a bear hunt, swung in the hammock, mixed up a feast in the mud kitchen, chased giant bubbles, had a woodland picnic and toasted marshmallows over the campfire all whilst celebrating a special third birthday! 🐻 🧸

🐻 🧸 A big Happy Birthday to the birthday girl Lara and a huge thank you to everyone who came to celebrate in the woods with us!

🎉If you came to today's party - please feel free to add any pictures of your own little ones in the comments! 🎉

🎉🌳 We have limited party availability for the remainder of 2024 and will soon be releasing our 2025 dates - watch this space! 👀

🌳🎉Thank you for choosing Boots & Brambles Forest School to help celebrate your special day! We hope you had as much fun as we did!

26/09/2024

💚 "I feel safe here, I love Forest School!" 💚

I'm not going to lie, running your own Forest School is hard work; physically and emotionally! Each week we are out in the woods, in all weather, running at least 9 different sessions, each tailored to the groups we work with. No two sessions are ever the same, each day we are tweaking and adapting things to meet the needs of our groups! There's hours of planning and prep behind the scenes as well as the day to day set up, pack away and running of sessions.

💚 But moments like this make it all worthwhile! Today in our SEMH Intervention group, a child turned to another adult and said these words "I feel safe here, I love Forest School!"💚

💚 So do I, the woods are such a magical place to be! 💚

Iloveforestschool

25/09/2024

🎃 🧙‍♀️ October Half Term is just around the corner! There's LOTS happening at Boots & Brambles Forest School for all ages!

🎃 Monday 28th October 10.30-12 - Halloween Family Session OPEN TO ALL AGES

🦇 Tuesday 29th & Wednesday 30th October 10-3 Halloween Holiday Club FOR AGES 6+ (includes own pumpkin to carve)

🎃 Book Now via our website 🎃

24/09/2024

💚Weekends are for the woods! Join us this Saturday 28th September 10-12 when we will be getting outdoors again for our monthly Into the Woods with Zephyr’s morning of seasonal crafts, hot chocolate, play and support.💚

These woodland activities are for bereaved family members of all ages; for children whose brother or sister has died, some who knew their sibling well, others who may have been born after the loss in the family, or may not yet know...

These sessions are for others too; cousins, grandparents, aunts, uncles and friends - with chance to come along and be together outside in a space where there's no pressure to talk, but where everyone there has been through or is going through a similar situation.

There are books and grief resources available, there's always someone from Zephyr’s there to chat to or share how you're doing and you can find out about our other services too.

Run by us here and the local charity this wonderful collaboration has been running for over a year and a half. You can come along as and when you're able, or every time, it's up to you. There's always something new to do as well as the familiar toys and our woods to explore too.

Free to attend for anyone bereaved through pregnancy loss or the death of a baby or child

https://www.bootsandbrambles.com/products/into-the-woods-with-zephyrs/

20/09/2024

🟢🔴🟡 The story that keeps on giving!! Today we had our final Forest School session linked to the Colour Monster story! 🟡🔴🟢

The children did a fantastic job acting out different emotions, retelling the story, hunting for colours and mixing up coloured potions in the mud kitchen!❤💛💚💙

We made a nature Colour Monster collage and used natural items to make nature colour prints.

The highlight of my day was when a child came up to me with their green bucket (picture top right) announcing "Fran, look I made a Colour Monster potion, he's all confused as his feelings are all mixed up!"

🟢🔴🟡 Over the last two weeks, we've used this book with children from Reception up to Y6 to inspire our Forest School sessions. The story has instigated some fantastic discussions about feelings and emotions. Yesterday our new SEMH cohort talked about how they had felt before starting our sessions and created their own emotion emojis to be used in future sessions to show how we are feeling! 🟡🔴🟢

💚🟢 It's been lovely to hear the children throughout this week saying that just like the Colour Monster in the story, they feel calm and relaxed in green spaces like the woods! 🟢💚

18/09/2024

🟢🔴🟡 We've LOVED exploring this book with children in our sessions over the last two weeks! Children from Reception to Y6 have enjoyed the story and characters! It's been a fantastic stimulus to talk about our emotions! Yesterday we had a fantastic day at Millside Spencer Academy where the children made their own woodland Colour Monsters! It was fascinating to hear the discussions that the children were having about their feelings! We also loved the fact that the Calm Monster is green and is found chilling out in a hammock under the trees, just as we do at Forest School! 🟡🔴🟢