Summer Holiday Forest School
We want to give your 9-13 year old children a great experience outside this school holiday! Our Forest School sessions run just outside Bath, in a private woodland near the racecourse which gives your children the perfect space to explore the outdoors, blow off some steam, get away from screens and try new things.
Sessions cost £30 per day (9am-4pm, please send them with a packed lunch), and available dates & sign-up links are available to view by clicking the button below. Advance booking is essential.
Sign up
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
An Introduction
Our style
BroadTree offer Forest School sessions, where attendees having a positive experience and enjoying the activities and learning is more important than achieving a specific outcome.
Our sessions vary, but normally involve an introduction, a quick chat about what the rules should be so everyone has a good session, and then the rest of the session is spent having fun! Our most popular activities are running games, exploring the forest, climbing trees, creative activities using natural materials, and the classic camp fire & marshmallows!
We encourage children to try new things and make mistakes, as this is where the learning happens- learning that sets them up for life, rather than an exam.
We pride ourselves on our holistic approach to risk and health & safety, where we encourage children to explore appropriate levels of risk on their own terms. We believe this best prepares children for adult life, but does mean your child could come home with a bruise or scrape. For more information please see our risk page.
Our staff & volunteers are carefully selected because of their style of working with children, working knowledge of how trauma and adversity affect children’s behaviour, and how they can help children in those situations rather than hinder them.
We can provide birthday party sessions for children aged 9+, please contact us for more information.
Coming prepared
Please do your best to arrive on time at the start of sessions. Due to the location and manner of the sessions it can be tricky to integrate someone that arrives late, and it impacts the session for the rest of the children.
We require a signed disclaimer and medical information form for each child at our sessions. We have spares available to fill out before the session if you forget to bring it in the excitement of the day!
Medical Info & Disclaimer
Please send your child with a packed lunch that will sustain them for a day of running around the forest! There are snacks and drinks at every session, but if your child has a specific favourite please send it along with them. As part of the sign-up process we ask about allergies and intolerances so we can make sure the snacks chosen are appropriate.
For info on what to wear please check out our clothing page. In summary please avoid jeans & flip flops/ sandals, always pack a spare jumper, and also a light coat if the forecast isn’t good.
Please leave screens and devices at home. Device usage has been shown to reduce the attention enhancement effect of green spaces (Jiang & Sullivan, 2018) and the risk of breakage or loss is very high and we will not accept responsibility for loss or damage to any device bought to our sessions.
The fine print
BroadTree are insured, and there’s a qualified first aider at every session.
Adam (our session leader) has taken a level 3 forest school leader course, and has a Certificate of Therapeutic mentoring from the Trauma Recovery Centre, Bath. All our staff and volunteers are DBS checked, and all activities are risk assessed.
Sessions are cancelled, postponed or moved in the case of extreme weather- high wind, settling snow and thunderstorms. We endeavour to give at least 24 hours notice, but British weather means this may not always be possible!
If there are 3 or less children booked on to a session 7 days before it starts, you’ll be contacted as a pre-warning that we may have to postpone. If 24 hours before there are still 3 or less children booked on, then the session will not go ahead.
If the planned session does not go ahead for any reason, you will be offered an alternative session or a full refund. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
If you’ve booked onto a session but something comes up and you can no longer make it, please let us know, and we’ll do our best to swap you to a session date that works.
Thanks for reading and we look forward to seeing you soon!
