Forest School Taster Session

Enjoy a day of nature connection the Forest School way.

Experience the playful, holistic approach of Forest School for yourself. Explore what it means to be human and why children need nature more than ever for their well-being to be effective, resilient and responsible citizens of the 21st Century. Learn how Forest School is a pedagogical approach that builds self-worth, community and belonging through the ethos and principles, not a series of activities. Discover for yourself the importance of play for humans of every age. This will be a practical session outdoors, with time to choose, connect and think.

This session is suitable for ECTs, teachers, school leaders, senior leaders, teaching assistants, SEND teachers, early years practitioners , pastoral care staff in all phases.

The cost of this session is £100 per person. Tea, coffee and biscuits will be provided throughout the day, you are welcome to bring your own lunch or purchase this at the onsite cafe. Parking is available.

About the facilitator

Sarah Lawfull is the founder of Where the Fruit Is, based in Oxfordshire. Sarah was a class teacher and voluntary youth leader for 20 years before discovering Forest School and escaping to the woods. As lead Forest School trainer for the Oxfordshire Forest School Service, she worked on writing the nationally recognised Forest School qualifications and has supported many schools and early years settings to embed this approach into their curriculums and improve outcomes.
Sarah is a professional leadership coach and Chair of the Forest School Association, co-founder of the Nature Premium campaign, and an FSA-endorsed trainer.

She is passionate about encouraging people of all ages to spend time in nature and learn to listen, recognising the valuable role the Forest School movement is having in creating autism-friendly communities. Sarah works with colleagues nationally to promote connection and the sharing of good practices around neurodiversity and building a safer and kinder world with autistic people.

From a lifetime of engaging children, teenagers and families with nature, Sarah has learnt the value of play, observation, and the empowerment of trust, creating a rich learning environment with space and time to think.

Through coaching and training, Sarah inspires adults to bring their best to their work with children, using nature as their guide, discovering that healthy people, connected to self, others and the planet, have hope, know how to learn and live purposeful lives.

Accessing the online event

Following registration for this event you will receive an email from Eventbrite confirming your place. If you do not receive the email within a few minutes, please check your junk or spam folders and check that the correct email address was provided at the time of booking. If you did not create an account at the time of booking or someone else booked on your behalf, you will need to create an Eventbrite account. Open your booking confirmation email, select ‘Claim Your Order’ and then choose a password. Make a note of your email address that was used to make the booking and your new password – you will need these to access the Eventbrite page containing the link to the event.

A minimum of 48 hours before the event begins you will receive another email from Eventbrite containing a direct link to the event and to the Eventbrite Online Event page. Login to Eventbrite, using the same email and password you used to create your account. You will now have access to the online event link and any pre-event materials. This link must not be shared with other people.

Please test the link the day before the event to make sure you can connect. If you need help please email info@otsa.org.uk or call 01865 647999 in good time before the event begins. We will be unable to help during the event itself. Please note, if you unsubscribe from Eventbrite before the event takes place you will not receive any further emails from Eventbrite and therefore will not receive the email with the link to the event.

We do not provide refunds if you are unable to access the event due to technical issues that are beyond our control.

Participation in online events

In all cases, at the beginning of the session to confirm your identity please ensure that your camera is on, your username matches the name you registered with and that you register in ‘chat’ with your first name, second name and organisation. This is for security and registration purposes and we may remove, without refunds, participants who have not confirmed their identity as described above.

Our online events aim to be interactive and at times you may be expected to have your camera and microphone on during the session, although usually your microphone should be muted.

We may use ‘Raised Hands’, ‘Reactions’, ‘Chat’, ‘Polls’, shared whiteboards and shared screens during the session. We may also use ‘Breakout Rooms’ to allow you to work in a smaller group.

This event will not be recorded for copyright and privacy reasons.

Payment

Payment is required at the time of booking by credit card, debit card or Paypal. Unless otherwise stated, a ticket gives admission to one person at face-to-face and online events. In the event that you share an online event link with other people who then attend the event, including sharing your screen, or you arrive at a venue without a ticket and we are able to admit you, we will invoice you or your organisation for additional tickets retrospectively.

Refunds

No refunds will be given with less than 30 days notice.

In the event of a refund request, please note that the Eventbrite booking fee of 6.95% plus 0.59p per ticket is not refundable.

To keep our event fees as low as possible, we are not able to issue invoices for payment by cheque or bank transfer and we are not able to reserve places without payment.

We strongly recommend that you take out ‘event ticket insurance’ which may cover the cost of your fee should you be unable to attend the event.