Minutes for FEI England Meeting 17th September 2007 Groundwork UK Offices, Scotland St, Birmingham Attendees Steve Scott Helen Howes Jo Webb Jenny Doyle Chris Southwood Rowena Kenny Apologies Alice Savery Angela Pollard Julia Sargent Dave Ashurst Minutes from last meeting agreed Action points discussed. Every Child’s Future Matters – this paper was supported by the DfES (now the new Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF)), through its partnership contract with the Sustainable Development Forest School is mentioned several times (pages 19 and 32, under the Enjoy and Achieve objective) It is aimed at those developing children’s policy as well as managing and delivering specific services such as Children and Young People’s Partnership Boards, and Children’s Trusts. go to http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/pages/edu_cayp.html to download a copy. Particular focus on travel and traffic, green spaces and climate change. If you would like to receive a hard copy please email: enquiries@sdcommission.org.uk Big Lottery – Access to Nature programme – provisional launch date 15th November for pre-applications. Possibility of Forest Schools national bid – SP to update at next meeting. Woodland Trust presentation – Karen Letten The Woodland Trust (WT) have a team of 7 and a database of all schools in the UK. Their learning strategy aims to:
Karen Letten Peter Machan Susannah Podmore Lauren Stevens Katie Clements
Stephanie Kimsey Janice Price David Thorp
Inspire children during school (7 – 14) Inspire children outside school Inspire adults Inspire volunteers
WT have produced several new resources, including The Man Who Planted Trees, Nature in a Changing Climate, Phenology Uncovered. There are also lots of downloadable resources from the website, including identification sheets for leaves, flowers, twigs and buds. Hedge and copse packs available to any school or youth group. Delivery dates are in November and March. 8835 packs have been sent out this season, with 17000 sent out in total. Seeds to Trees is also available online from November onwards. Lots of good interactive games and activities on the main education website which is at http://www.naturedetectives.org.uk New Nature Detectives Club - £12 for individual child, £15 for a school. You receive a free information pack twice a year, and an electronic challenge poster. The poster “The Learning Tree” has been sent to all schools in the UK with the different resources listed, so any schools you are in contact with, should be aware of the new resources – if not, remind them! Training and Forest Festival Project - Rowena Kenny, Forest of Avon The Bristol and West cluster group received FEI partnership funding for this project, with the following broad aims: Sustainable, not just 1 hit Strengthen the network Widen – FEI is tip of the iceberg Quality and profile Accessible quality training Celebration forest festival Rowena outlined the project – This project will deliver a high profile Forest Festival in accessible urban woodland at the heart of Bristol in summer 2008. It will involve local cluster group practitioners working together to deliver the festival, learning new skills and providing best practice through activities, which will engage and inspire people from inner urban communities. To ensure that the Forest Festival benefits from the highest quality forest education practise, an important component of this project is for cluster group practitioners to work with and learn from each other and with leading practitioners in the field nationally. The project will therefore involve a skills enrichment programme providing additional enrichment; necessary inspiration and development of practise which most CPD budgets do not have scope for.
The majority of cluster members will be attending training at their own personal expense and in their own time. This project will therefore make top quality training opportunities accessible. To this end, all participating local cluster group members will pay £25/day to work with external trainers, with this funding providing the match sum. The Forest Festival will provide an opportunity to showcase the new skills developed during the training element of the project. The training so far has attracted new members to the cluster groups, bringing together professionals, who may have felt isolated. This is an excellent way to enthuse your cluster group, and offer reasonable training, depending on local needs. For further details of how your cluster group may be able to replicate this project, please contact Susannah for the next partnership fund deadline on 1 st February 2008. AP: SP to attend the woodland management and risk assessment workshop on 16 January. Forest School Quality Assurance Scheme Susannah and Jenny updated the group. The consultant, Fiona Groves, is now working with the 5 pilots until the end of March 2008. There will be an evaluation workshop in April/May. Fiona is contracted to do the final reporting by November 2008, but hopefully it will be produced earlier. The mentors for the pilots had their workshop on 2nd October. The peer reviewers workshop will be on 6th December. General discussion about the Health & Safety section of the QA – this should be 95% achieved with immediate written action points –before a quality standard can be achieved. AP: SP and Jenny Doyle to report back on pilots. Invite Fiona Groves to next meeting? Meeting with Institute of Outdoor Learning (IOL) Main points from meeting The Institute for Outdoor Learning (IOL) has an international remit to encourage outdoor learning by developing quality, safety and opportunity to experience outdoor activity provision. In addition it supports and enhances the good practice of those who work in the outdoors. IOL is a key player in representing and lobbying on behalf of the sector and has good connections with Skills Active, the relevant Sector Skills Council for the outdoor sector. Go to www.outdoor-learning.org for further information. Based on their experience with the Accredited Practitioners Award, IOL are well placed as a neutral organisation with an international reputation, to help gain consensus amongst the many partners in England involved in
Forest School development. go to learning.org/professional_accreditation/index.htm
http://www.outdoor-
At this initial meeting in June, IOL expressed an interest in, and would be willing to help facilitate the setting up of a “special interest group” (SIG) for Forest Schools in England. This would have the specific remit of reaching consensus on national standards, initially in training and quality of Forest School delivery. Karen Brush (Chief Executive, IOL) offered to facilitate the inaugural meeting planned for September 2007 and help with the process thereafter. The aims of the group will be decided at the inaugural meeting in September. This meeting would allow invited attendees to decide if they would like to form a “strategy board” looking at a constitution, initial objectives and a mission statement. If these aims were agreed, this group would then look at the formation of an operational group who would commit time to create a national standard for Forest School training in England. The long term vision could be to oversee the management of quality assurance – adopting the work of the GB Forest School quality assurance scheme pilots (currently funded by FEI) when ready to disseminate further (late 2008). A further meeting took place on 12th September, which was attended by Forest School trainers, FEI and FC staff from England, Wales and Scotland, as well as some experienced Forest School leaders – the minutes from this meeting are attached. AP: SP to update on progress with the formation of this SIG and Forest School training. Cluster group updates London – Katie Clements Trees for Cities have been piloting Forest School in South London, and are planning to set up 3 FEI cluster groups in London. Groundwork in Merton are interested and will be attending a meeting in Sep/Oct. Hammersmith and Fulham – interested in using Wormwood Scrubs. Greenwich LEA very interested, as well as some preparatory schools in Dulwich. Derbyshire – Lauren Stevens Jane Featherstone has retired, replaced by Georgina Cass. The NE Derbyshire cluster group meets 3 times a year – training is a big issue. Looking to have a Community Festival next year. Halloween meeting – using a “spooky theme” for Forest School. Article in the Small Woods Association newsletter on Forest Schools at end of September. Lauren has been in post for one year – now taking stock of development, and sending a questionnaire to local schools involved in Forest School. Looking at school grounds development, as a sustainable way forward for schools to run Forest School
sessions themselves. Issues with training – Level 3 is expensive, and transport costs to sites are main problems. South Yorkshire – Peter Machan Time spent promoting Forest Schools taster days to local schools in June, as part of Sheffield Children’s’ Festival: 14 schools involved Lord Mayor and councillors attended sessions Very much enjoyed by all according to evaluation sheets (100% positive) Photos and report have gone out to all schools in South Yorkshire and been posted on the heritage woods website. Short promotional DVD has been produced which will be used at training and promo events as well as sent to interested schools. 4 Active Forest Schools in north Sheffield Shropshire – Helen Howes 4 exemplar sites now set up in the north/east/south/west of the county. No more level 1 training, only L2 and L3. Lottery bid, under well-being, for Forest School project unsuccessful. HH only funded until the end of the year. Bristol and West of England – Rowena Kenny New Play Rangers posts in Baines and South Gloucester – playworkers trained to work in wild areas – Natural Elements Play Course run by Martin Maudsley, as part of Play Strategy. South Gloucestershire – very successful Forest School pilot with pre-schools. Herefordshire – Anney Thornton Wood Cluster group limping along. Funding from AONB and EYDCP. 4 schools are trained and actively practising Forest Schools. Hoping to use the FC West Mids WIG to develop more sites. Birmingham – Jo Webb £10k from Education Learning Support team used for Forest Schools with special needs groups – evaluation now taking place. Fewer people signing up for FS training 10 FS programmes running, with 5 qualified leaders. Flagship project at Lifford, South Birmingham – consultant being paid to look at developing site Website – Birmingham FEI cluster group have developed their own web site – go to http://www.brumforestschools.org.uk This site uses software from moonfruit company, modelled on Devon website, for local not national information. Easy to update and user friendly. £3/month. 2 – 3 days work to develop Would like to add interactive map for practitioners in your area. Includes news/training, help with delivery, list of qualified practitioners, help with school grounds sections
SP suggested that other cluster groups look at developing their own site, and could use the £200 small grant (available to all FEI cluster groups annually) to pay for the site. ACTION: All groups interested to contact SP or Birmingham group, to set up own local FEI website. Worcestershire – Jenny Doyle Funding for practitioners to work with school phobics allowed the training and 6 sessions to go ahead at Bishopswood site, but no more funding available. OCN course for 14- 16 year olds, looking at Forest school skills within childcare. Funding paid for PPE, but 3 days before the course was due to start, the schools withdrew. The good news – 3 x Level 3 Forest School courses in November/Feb/June – nearly all full – run by Jon Cree, at cost of £650. Groundwork – Chris Southwood Groundwork are rebranding their education activities – under the banner “One World Schools”. There will be a logo for schools, but no registration form. National Groundwork programmes can be offered to schools, who can then buy in Groundwork’s services such as a project officer’s time. If that officer is then happy with the project, a stamp/logo will be awarded. This could be part of Eco-Schools, or working towards the Sustainable Schools Framework, and BS8 555 Award could also be offered. There are six phases to BS8 555, each of which can be individually verified by a UKAS accredited certification body, leading finally to either ISO 14001 or EMAS certification. For further information, contact Chris at Groundwork UK. Other news - Breathing Places Campaign Breathing Places, a campaign run by the BBC in partnership with the Big Lottery Fund (BLF), was launched at Chatelherault Country Park, Hamilton, summer 2006 Breathing Places has since been under review. For details of the BBC campaign, go to: http://www.bbc.co.uk/breathingplaces/.
Breathing Places Fund Breathing Places will provide between £300 to £10,000 to support community initiated projects aimed at enhancing local environments for people and wildlife. Breathing Places funding can be matched up to £25,000. Anything more and the BLF advise upon a stand-alone project of 10,000 (max). There is no requirement that BLF funds are matched. Application forms will be available from the 12th November 2007. The application deadline is 18th January 2008 with awards made in June 2008.
Project applications must meet at least two out of three desired outcomes. For further details of the BLF Breathing Places fund go to: http://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/prog_breathingplaces.htm.
Next meeting Friday 18th January at Bristol. Any items to be sent to Susannah by Friday 4th January 2008. Venue details to follow.