Forest Birthday Parties

Parents take part and have as much fun as the kids

Choose your favourite wood.

We are licenced to use Woodland Trust woods for our activities. These include:

Lumb Brook Valley in Appleton, Warrington. WA4 5NB A bluebell wood with its own stream. Only available July to December.

Gorse Covert Mounds in Birchwood, Warrington. WA3 6UG A birchwood with its own viewpoint.

New Moss Wood on the Manchester Mosses near Cadishead. M44 5JT A quiet wood with lots of connected glades.

St Benedicts Wood, Rainhill. A wood with a meadow

Snidley Moor near Frodsham/Helsby. A hilly wood that's great for exploring. NB Currently unavailable.

Get directions

Den Building at Gorse Covert Mounds late Summer

Base camp

Overhead tarps for shelter. Ground sheets to sit on.

Hot(winter), Cool Drinks. Tea, coffee, hot chocolate, cordial

Campfire (with the kind permission of the land owner).

Outside loo - just in case.

Base camp activities such as hammocks and/or scramble net.*

Some sites have specific base camp activities such as dens, water play, etc (see below).

Site activities

Some woods offer unique activities

Lumb Brook Valley

Lumb Brook is unavailable from January to June

Stream walking, dam making and water play with gutter chutes when the water's warm enough.

Mud pie bake off. Make a mud pie and decorate.

Gorse Covert Mounds

Bracken dens - dens with bracken walls (June to Sept)

Pond Dipping (Spring to Autumn)

King/Queen of the Hill - We make a sedan from poles and fabric and parents carry the birthday boy/girl to the top of Pestfurlong Hill.

Birthday Prices

Frequently asked questions

Why not book a forest party with us?

You get:

Two and a half hours of fun including a led activity based on a theme followed by food and base camp time. Choose from

Choose your Theme/Activities

Teddy Bear Search - get searching for bears that have climbed the trees in search of honey for their porridge.

Nursery Rhyme/Fairy Tale Hunt - go on the hunt for Goldilocks, 3 pigs, 3 bears, fairies, Gruffalo, Gingerbread man.

Fairy Tale Village - Create a fairy house. Build watchtowers, a village hall, goblin prison, fairy landing strip - whatever takes your fancy. Then connect them with mini roads,

Bespoke - Got something else in mind. Contact us.

Campfire food

Starter

Toasted marshmallows & posh smores

We'll show you how to safely toast Haribo marshmallows which you can eat fresh or sandwich between a chocolate/caramel biscuit smores.

Main

Sausage in buns (kids)

Pork sausages pre-cooked then sizzled in the pan before being put to bed in a bun and drowned with ketchup.

Bacon sarnie (adults)

Dessert

Campfire popcorn

Listen to them pop in melted butter before tucking in once the pan has cooled.

Extras/choiceS

Extra Food More Info

We have other options such as nutella fondue, pancakes as well as options to special dietary conditions or veggie/vegan. These have an additional charge. Click here for more information.

The stream provides water for play and gutter chutes.

Birthday Badge

From April 2017 we're offering an included name badge. Tell us your child's spelling and age on their birthday and we'll present them with their very own forest birthday badge.

These are hand made using pyrography (branding hot metal) on hazel cut coins. Results may vary as we may use different woods, ribbons and branding techniques.

You can buy extra badges for your guests. Just let us know their names a few days before the party.

Bear Hunt Party

Come and join us on a Bear Hunt! We’ll go searching for our naughty bears that have run off to hide. Some have climbed trees so be warned mums and dads you may have to lift kids to retrieve them. We’ll play some bear party games before heading back to base camp for fire time and toasted marshmallows. Be warned at Lumb Brook Valley bears like to go near mud and the stream so bring wellies and waterproofs!

Build a base for our bears or enjoy base camp activities whilst we cook lunch.

Dragon Nest Making

Come to base camp and meet Scarlet our tame Red Dragon. She’s laid eggs but needs you to make a nest. Get sticks, moss and whatever you can find to make her a home. You’ll need to master weaving to protect the eggs and make a platform to keep them off the ground. Then turn the nest into a dragon drey by building a waterproof roof.

Then its back to base camp for more activities and food.

Den Building

We can do den building at any wood but our best wood is Gorse Covert Mounds in Birchwood Warrington. Here we can use birch brash to help you make lean to or free standing dens and then using gloves we pull up bracken to weave into a green thatch right next to our base camp.

St Benedicts wood in Rainhill is great for stick dens as there’s lots of ash that we coppice to help manage ash dieback and encourage new growth.

After your den is built its base camp time - hammocks, net/stream and campfire cooking.

Fairy Village

We’ll sneak up on our best kept secret - where the fairies live!

Tread softly as we approach the fairy glade where you’ll discover the tiny doors at the bottom of trees. We’ll start to make paths, ladders, front gardens and picket fences before we start to shape our community with roads, bridges and meeting places.

Then its back to base camp and perhaps, whilst we’re eating, the fairies will visit their homes and leave their pixie dust.

Prices

Payment is made by a £75 deposit and then final payment once you’re sure of final numbers depending on the party size. Parents are free and get campfire food too. The reason is we need parents to take care of the basic needs of the children such as toileting and we rope parents into activities which they love. Our events are great family time! Please include any attending siblings - if you think some might turn up unannounced then we recommend opting for a party with slightly more children so there’s lots of food - don’t worry about wastage as attending parents tends to gobble up any unclaimed sausages.

SMALL 12 or less Children - £270 available at all sites

MEDIUM 13-16 children - £295 available at all sites.

LARGE 17-20 children - £320 Available at Lumb Brook & Gorse Covert Mounds& St Benedicts (Rainhill)

We've curtailed numbers at certain sites due to parking limitations and potential site impact. Let us know if you want a particular site because if you're local or car sharing we could go higher.

Choose a time slot

Winter am

10:30am start

base camp approx 11:15am

and eating at approx. 11:45am

Finish at car park by 1pm

winter pm

2pm start

base camp approx. 2:45pm

and eating at approx. 3:15pm

Finish at car park at 4:30pm

Winter is November to March

Please note in mid winter we may adjust timings by agreement to ensure we operate in daylight during Dec/Jan.

Important details

New Moss Wood & Snidley Moor both have limited parking for approximately 12 car so for larger parties at these woods car sharing should be considered or walking in from nearby.

*Hammocks are a dry weather option as nobody likes getting in a wet hammock. In which case the bounce net will be put up. Due to their attachment to trees, the bounce net is unavailable at Lumb Brook (but you have the stream to play in).

How to book and pay

email rawdon@fairyforestschool.com to arrange:

Your preferred Day & Date.

Your preferred time slot . Evening slots are do-able by arrangement in Summer. We tend to run at weekends but can usually accommodate week days especially in school holidays or time an after school event (advisable to change out of your uniform though).

Which wood you'd prefer - NB we cannot swap woods in a given day and do 2 birthdays a day due to set up/pack away time. If you desperately want a certain wood you'll need to book early or pick another day if an earlier booking has specified a wood which you're not keen on.

Theme/activities - see above.

Birthday boy/girl's name and age for the party for the complimentary badge.

Payment - We've introduced a deposit to secure your booking. Just click Book now and scroll down to the bottom. One booked we'll confirm the party and send any extra info. such as diections and editable invites. We'll touch base to confirm no.s, special dietary requirements, any extras you'd like and other details then send you payment details a week or two before the party. Please pay this (usually by bank transaction) and pop us an email to confirm at least 48 hours before the party.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do you do party bags?

Not currently but we an recommend eco party bag suppliers.

Can we put up banners at your base camp?

Of course. Please bear in mind that if you're thinking of coming early there may be another party in progress. We have a leave no trace agreement with the woodland trust so please remove everything at the end and before the next party arrives.

Can we bring a cake and sing happy birthday?

Sure.

If we’re at a wood close to the car like Lumb Brook or New Moss then its worth leaving in the the car so you can nip back when we’re into our second hour at base camp. Woods with a bit of a walk in such as Gorse Covert Mounds its worth bringing with you as its a fair trek back to the car. These are public woods so its worth having the cake well wrapped in case of a rogue dog being walked (its never happened but potentially might). We don’t provide napkins or plates as we’re all about minimising waste - we prefer to make sure people have clean hands. We usually have a knife but you might want to bring your own depending on your cake. We have a camping table you can put the cake in so its away from the ground. We’ve had parents bring extremely intricate wow factor cakes but there’s always the worry they might get dropped en-route -we’ll let you decide which is best and help as much as we can.

Some people go for cup cakes for their party bags as its less hassle and put a candle in one or a small cake for the lighting ceremony. Candles can be fun to light on a windy day but we manage. You might want to bring matches or a lighter but if not we can light using a BBQ stick from the fire. Some people go for a sparkler type candle (you can’t blow it out and neither can the wind).

Can we bring extra food/snacks and treats?

Of course. But please remember that we expect to have minimal impact on the wood so if you think they'll be lots of litter (such as juice bottles) we need you to take those away with you. We'd recommend avoiding sweets and wrappers as these tend to be dropped by young children and they're a nightmare to clear up. Best saved for goody bags.

Can we bring extra food/drink to cook on the fire for adults such as extra sausages and bacon?

Of course but so far nobody has wanted any extra food. If you'd like us to provide extra's for adults such as toasted chorizo or chocolate fondue we can do for a fee. Raw sausages take a long time to cook (we precook ours the night before then refrigerate). Please no alcoholic drinks as we're in woods with public access.

Can we smoke in the woods?

We'd recommend being discrete near other parents children. And disposing of your stubbed out cigarette end in a bin so as not to harm any local wildlife.

Is there a minimum age?

For parties we tend not to charge for under 2’s if an older sibling is present so the whole family can come and not have to organise childcare. However please note that we don’t cater for them either so if you’d like to include them in for food then you’ll need to include them in the party no.s and pay the appropriate amount.

What’s the max number of children?

20. Attending adults for the children have no limit so feel free to invite every attending child’s parents. In practice that’s one car per family.

Looking for directions?

Click here to see more info on out forest school site including directions.

Book a forest party