Bushcraft for Kids

SPRING FOREST SCHOOL IS BACK!

A 6 week programme on buschcraft and survival outdoors - hammocks, den building, fire lighting and much more co-hosted with ReWild Your School.

Fire-time snacks included.
Ideal for primary school age but older/younger welcome. Parents stay (free tea coffee).

GORSE COVERT MOUNDS, Birchwood, Warrington (J11 -M62)
Every 10:30am Every Saturday 6th April to 11th May.

Our session plans are:

Week 1 Introduction to base camp - hammocks, camp rules such as fire place

Week 2 Fire building and safety - Fire rules,, foraging, building, the law, lighting, cooking

Week 3 Dens and shelters- Natural dens, tarps and hammocks

Week 4 Plant Identification and uses - Plant ID and uses

Week 5 Tracking / Navigation - Animal ID, map reading, compass, landscape.

Week 6 Celebration - A bit of everything and fire BBQ lunch

We are building on the success of last years Spring Forest School but going for a slightly older age range (primary school-ish) and a more bushcraft feel so expect to be using and learning about nature, tools, knots, fire and so on. As with all forest school its child led and our clientele is families so younger or older kids are welcome. Parents can expect to be embroiled into activities and take part too so expect to pick up a tip or two fort when you’re out and about.

Food/Drink

We provide a campfire snack - usually something on a stick - which we cook on a fire. Feel free to bring a packed lunch and more snacks too. We have hot water for drinks and provide tea/coffee/hot choc/squash.

And yes! You’ll be toasting some marshmallows.

BASE CAMP

Gorse Covert Mounds is great for activities on the walk in and has a reasonably private wood we can set up base camp. Its quite muddy due to rewetting works to encourage mossland so wellies and old clothes recommended.

Each week we will set up the regular bounce/scramble net, hammocks, tarps (if its raining), Giant Jenga, emergency loo (please go before you set out), den building area, campfire kitchen, hot drinks.

BOOKING ESSENTIAL

See https://www.fairyforestschool.com/contact#Bushcraft to book.
£15 per child - attending adults free. Book the 6 weeks for the price of 5. Individual session tickets will be released nearer the time.
SAVE EVEN MORE. Booking for more than one or for others? Select the sibling or bring friends rate (2-5 children) or group rate (6 children or more). Food/drinks included.

We're recruiting

We need FOREST SCHOOL PRACTITIONERS for sites in Frodsham, Rainhill and Warrington.

We have a range of sites that we use through licence agreement and we want to do more. We need a level 3 forest school practitioner to adopt a site and take it forward as a Forest School Leader. This is a great opportunity for a newly qualified forest school leader looking to begin their forest school/outdoor ed journey, learn complimentary skills, achieve their forest school dreams and develop their CPD.

As a forest school leader you will be responsible for:

• Leading safe and fun sessions on site

• Maintaining Safety and Sustainability for your site

• Managing support staff, parents and children

• Design family sessions including forest school programmes events and forest birthday parties

• Market your sessions, such as through social media to build on our client base

You will need:

• The right values on education, the environment and working in a team.

• Transport to take kit to and from your site.

• A forest school leader qualification (level 3) including outdoor paediatric first aid.

• To work weekends depending on a schedule of events

You will get:

Flexible hours built around delivery of events

Skill training and support

Management and guidance to help you achieve your forest school ambitions

Pay and hours based around an agrees schedule of programmes/events.

To apply just email rawdon@fairyforestschool.com and include a covering letter/statement and CV

Wildlife Learning

Turn your school into a haven for wildlife as part of the school curriculum and ethos

There’s no doubt that our children will be inheriting a world that is less rich in wildlife than when their teachers were kids. Insect numbers are spiralling down, as are hedgehog populations and some species of birds too. Schools - especially urban schools may have open space but for wildlife this represents a green desert. We believe that schools should be at the forefront of turning these trends around - but how?

We will shortly be launching a new service to schools aimed at habitat creation linked to learning across the curriculum. and expanding a school’s ethos to include nurturing and care for the local environment but in a targeted way. We can do this at a school ground without impacting on open space for play, PE, school matches and so on.

We can provide lessons will cover habitat creation, carrying out maintenance and integrating the new area as a resource across various lessons, topics and subject matter. Most habitat creation is grant funded or very cheap and easy to carry out. For example just stop mowing a peripheral strip on the school field which costs nothing!

Wildlife in need

Our focus will be on the areas of wildlife that are are most accessible for schools and our wildlife that’s the most at risk namely:

1. Hedgerows for hedgehogs

2. Wet Wildlife corridors

3. Pollinating bees

4. Caterpillars and Butterflies

5. Bugs - other invertebrates

6. Birds

Each of our 6 areas will have 3 phases:

1. Habitat Creation

2. Habitat Maintenance

3. Habitat Learning

Its likely that our 6 areas will overlap for example with careful selection of tree species in a hedge you can support a wet wildlife corridor, provide pollinator habitat, bird habitat and so on.

Choosing several strands or a whole school approach is recommended but simply choosing one area to support will give wildlife and school learning a lift.

Lets take hedgerows for hedgehogs for example

This poor hedgehog was found out in the day - not a good sign so off to hedgehog rescue he goes.

Habitat Creation will involve creating a hedge either using free trees for schools from the woodland trust or other charity or community forest, laying/coppicing an existing hedge or carrying out local pruning to establish a dead hedge. The type of hedge and tree species will be agreed with the school on how it will be maintained (e.g. blackthorn if its mechanically maintained, going for a non thorny hedge/screen for nursery/reception and so on ). We will be creating a hedgehog house and feeding/water stations. And ensure hedgehogs can access the area by ensuring ground level access through existing fencing.

The design and strategy will be agreed and include checking constraints (such as utilities). We will seek to connect with offsite wildlife areas such as connecting wooded areas and help schools deal with other objectives such as security and screening.

Habitat maintenance will involve ensuring hedgerow trees establishment by hand weeding, adding mulch, selective pruning, watering in drought etc. Replenishing feeding and water stations. Providing bedding near homes. Hedge laying if appropriate and replacing tree loses.

Habitat learning. Planting involves some maths around spacing and measuring. Maintenance introduces concepts like nutrients and competition. As well as involving pupils in creation and maintenance the hedgerow provides several windows into certain topics such as habitats, hibernation and identification with keys. The hedgerow and hogs can be used as a backdrop to story telling and literacy objectives using books like Percy the Park Keeper or Brambly Hedge Books. A deep delve into hedgehogs can be topic based for life cycles. Its great fun to make miniature clay/pine cone hedgehogs and place them in the hedge as a sensory experience and develop motor skills. By fixing wooded coins to the hedge you can present a scale or timeline involving measuring, scale and multiplication. As with all natural materials the hedge will produce natural resources such as leaves, twigs, berries which can be used for forest school, counting, outdoor art, hurdle weaving and more. As nature colonises your hedge pupils will start to acclimatise to a more natural environment and observe birds nesting there.

How much will it cost?

Creation - Habitat Establishment Materials - Mostly free. Planning and establishment daily rate possibly grant funded (depends on the grant) as is planting lessons with pupils.

Maintenance - Daily rate possibly grant funded (depends on the grant) or delivery as daily rate

Learning - Daily rate and includes skill sharing with teachers/TA’s, incorporating topics within your scheme of work. Potentially this could be non contact time but we recommend staff are present for skill sharing as part of Continuing Professional Development.

Your school is unique so we agree an approach that works for your school and can give you a quote. Email rawdon@fairyforestschool.com

To be Continued

We want to give teachers and schools more information on our six areas of wildlife in need and our vision of what we can do for schools PLUS a whole school approach incorporating many of the features of forest school fire circle, den building, hammocks, story telling areas, outdoor classrooms which we can incorporate into habitat creation.

Please SHARE and FOLLOW for regular updates.

WE ARE HIRING

Director Rawdon is ultra busy carrying out woodland creation for his local community forest so we are looking for someone to step in and take over his role as much as possible.

What we need . . .

. . . is someone working towards or with a Forest School Level 3 Qualification to lead our forest school programmes, events, birthday parties, school trips and more when the season starts again in early Spring. In other words a Forest School Leader. We need the right person not just with skills but also with a similar ethos based around conservation, education and play. See our person spec below.

Why advertise now?

The role is available in Spring but we need a handover so you can see how things are done. This would really suit someone who is working towards FS Level 3 because you’d get experience and mentoring and then Spring time you’d be set ready to go. In the meantime you’d be working with the Director and forest school assistants on an ad hoc basis mostly on the odd weekend. This gives you the perfect time to try working for us with a toe in the water to see if its for you, finish off any notice and get your forest school qualification.

What experience do I need?

To lead sessions you need a Forest School level 3. Any other experience is desirable but its the FS Lvl 3 we need you to have so we can comply with the requirements of our licence agreement. To work as a Forest School Assistant doesn’t require the FS3 which is why we suggest working ad hoc until you’re qualified. Working with kids and in the outdoors is desirable but if you’ve not got that then join us as an assistant with the goal of becoming a leader in 2023.

What is pay and conditions like?

This is totally negotiable depending on the hours you’d like to work in Spring. We want you to develop naturally and organically. An ambitious driven person might want to go hell for leather, seek to do lots of events and programmes or alternatively we might have someone who needs to balance childcare or other responsibilities so there is less drive to deliver lots of experiences. We are fine with either approach, but they must turn a profit so the business is financially sustainable and ulitimately the business must grow.. Hence the reason that pay is negotiable. Ultimately, we want you and our business to grow at the right pace - hand in hand. That means we can develop the role in terms of hours either 0 hours ad hoc, part time or full time to suit your needs and our order book.

Location

We work through Licence Agreement at Woods in Warrington (north and south), Rainhill and Cadishead. The role may also require some home working - to be determined - based on the candidate.

Person Specification

For Spring we need . . .

Experience and qualifications

Experience of working with children - ESSENTIAL - which you’ll get with us if you join as an assistant

Hold or working towards a Forest School Practioner Level 3 (18 credits or 14 credits with suitable CPD evidence) ESSENTIAL

Experience of forest school or outdoor education activities as part of an ongoing continuous personal professional development DESIRABLE

Outdoor paediatric first aid certificate DESIRABLE

Be physically fit/active and able to carry out lifting, transportation, set up and dismantling of equipment. ESSENTIAL

Suitable DBS ESSENTIAL as you’ll be working with kids and potentially vulnerable adults.

Management or supervisory experience demonstrating leadership of assisting staff ESSENTIAL. You’ll need to manage our brilliant and experienced assistants. To be honest they know the ropes and are really helpful and friendly but we may well get new staff depending on how our order book develops. New staff will need help and development so prepare to be a mentor in 2023.

Ethos

We need someone that fits in well with our ethos. Namely . . .

• Have a love of nature and puts nature first

• Have a sense of humour and work well with other team members and wants to have fun

• Enjoy working for us and pass that joy to our visitors. Be entertaining. Be fun and draw others into that.

• Be caring. Be safe. But balance that with being adventurous and exciting.

• Be resilient. Be patient. We are all weathers and work with all sorts of people.

• Encourage growth - in others, in your own development and in our business. You will have drive to move things forward.

• Be flexible. Currently our main revenue is forest school parties at weekends so some weekend working is a must.

Summary

This is a great opportunity for someone that wants to get into outdoor education, forest school and event management at a pace that suits them. You’ll deliver on leading forest parties, private bookings and school trips and grow our business to reintroduce forest school programmes, events in woodland or at sites such as nurseries or schools. Once you’ve got supporting forest events under your belt you’ll start to lead them. Then you will start to develop new events programmes, school trips, etc and become more involved in pushing Fairy Forest School forwards. Thats our vision - so be a part of it and apply with a CV. Got questions? Just email rawdon@fairyforestschool.com

Lead sessions outdoors! Join us!

Forest Parties are changing

We’ve decided to go for a more intimate forest party that will ensure we have even less impact on the woods we operate in and provide a greater experience for you and your guests.

To that end we will be not going over a party size of 20 children for anyone that books from September 2022.

New Menu Too

To speed up parties we will also be ditching food options that take a long time on the fire because they are cooked individually. We will of course be keeping smores but pancakes, brioche and charred chorizo are out. But we are keeping the very popular chocolate banana fondue as an extra and finishing the party on a BANG with campfire popcorn.

You can treat adults or kids with an extra menu item HONEY CHORIZO which is an improved recipe on the individually cooked charred chorizo. We take bitesize chunks of chorizo and pan fry them in their own juices and then drizzle with honey. We serve them up in a pan for people to skewer with a stick and help themselves.

We also can GO VEGGIE all round now we have discovered Richmond sausages which taste just like the real thing. But if meat is your thing we will continue to cook pork sausages in buns for kids and bacon for attending adults.

And as usual tea, coffee and squash (when its hot) or hot chocolate (when its cold) are included and FREE.

New party sizes

2022 has been an interesting year with more rave reviews from our customers but a couple of complaints from local residents to the woods we operate in. They have expressed concern about usage and parking. Impact on the woods is primarily from visitor numbers from lockdown and the swathes of people having time to connect with nature but unfortunately also trampling flora. The parking complaints we don’t think reasonable given that customers are legally parked and access isn’t restricted. We cannot accept liability for members of the public driving and parking on public roads.

However, all in all, after discussing usage with our site owners, the Woodland Trust, local Conservation Groups and also our staff reflecting on the different experience between a larger party and a smaller one we think we can give better, more sustainable, more nature orientated experiences if we stay within a limit of 20 children maximum. We have no limit on attending adults as they provide the necessary care for their children but we think about one car per family is about right.

The limit of children for schools and nurseries remains at a class size approx. 30 as these tend to be one vehicle (a coach) and have teachers present.

New prices

We’ve tried to hold back the increase but cost of living, staff wages, NI, diesel, food, consumables have all taken their toll. A party for up to 12 children is now 245, for up to 16 is 270 and up to 20 is 295 in total. Its still a bargain with up to 2 and half hours entertainment for kids and grown ups with food and drink thrown in including marshmallow smores and a special birthday badge.

As before there is a 75 deposit to secure the booking (in pen in the diary) with final payment of the balance about a week before the big day. Just click the appropriate button on the BOOK NOW page.

Of course we will honour parties booked and deposit paid before 1st September 22 with the old prices. But as our website has changed you won’t be able to use the final payment buttons which will have the new prices. Get in touch to arrange payment (bank transfer or paypal invoice).

New site specific experiences

Mud pie bake off at Lumb Brook

Lumb Brook Valley, Appleton, is the wood with the stream so we will be making the most of that. It now has a local conservation group which has specific objectives with Hazel Coppicing such as wildlife dead hedging. In practice this means we can’t do dens other than a few sticks against a tree at our base camp. Also, as the wood is far more sensitive to usage since lockdown we are concentrating on experiences that will be centred around our base camp area making the most of water play in the stream - gutters, slide, stony dams and mud bake off. This fits a younger child’s party really well as its a big adventure that actually doesn’t involve that much walking. Prepare for fun and prepare to get wet and muddy (parents too). Our site licence also avoids Spring (when this ancient woods flowers are at their most sensitive) so expect to be able to cool off in the shady stream from July onwards.

Bounce Net available at Gorse Covert Mounds and New Moss Wood

Gorse Covert Mounds in Birchwood is quite simply our best site for dens. There’s lots of wood from woodland management and moss regeneration work plus once from early summer there is lots of bracken. Bracken can get out of control and effect biodiversity so we are fine to uproot it to make thatch. The site has a bit more of a walk in than our other sites making it ideal for hunts (bear and nursery rhyme/tale hunts) and our base camp has lots of great trees for hammocks and the bounce net.

St Benedicts Wood in Rainhill has its own private car park and meadow. This is perfect for when mobility is an issue as there are good paths from the car park to base camp. Its a good all rounder and has enough space for use to unfurl the giant parachute to play with plus hammocks.

New Moss near Cadishead is great for smaller parties centred at base camp and a good all rounder. Lots of sticks so good for traditional forest school plus good trees for the bounce net and hammocks.

Snidley Moor in Frodsham is currently not available due to our main access being restricted to parking again as a result from so many people visiting it over lockdown.

New sites. We have a couple of avenues to explore for new woodland and we’ll let you know!

Over 20,000 visitors to the woods.

We are proud to announce that we’ve passed over 20,000 visitors that we’ve brought into the woods.

Fairy Forest School operates through licence agreement with the Woodland Trust to host activities in several woods in and around Warrington.

Since we started in December 2014 we’ve helped 20,000 children and attending adults access nature - including families with children, schools, nurseries, adventure scouts and brownies, charities such as Friends - play for disabled children, community groups and even the odd family social for organisations like the Environment Agency based in Warrington.

We’ve been fortunate to carry out activities at woods such as Lumb Brook Valley in Appleton, Gorse Covert Mounds in Birchwood Warrington, Snidley Moor in Frodsham, New Moss Wood near Cadishead and St Benedicts Wood in Rainhill.

We’ve carried out an array of activities and outdoor learning events. These super fun activities are a great way to get our visitors to carry out conservation and foster care for the wood and its inhabitants such as;

Getting in Lumb Brook is massively popular

• Flower fairy hunts to identify and learn about common woodland flowers

• Den building and coppicing/ bracken clearing to get more light on the forest floor and increase biodiversity

• Fairy Village Making to get children (and parents too) to imagine what its like to be a tiny inhabitant of the wood

• Bear Hunts and Fairy Tale Character Hunts to explore the Woodland

• Pond Dipping and stream play and walks to learn what’s lives in the water whilst exploring and having fun

• Hedgehog Habitat Building making dead hedges using coppiced hazel

• Gruffalo sessions creating log piles for good detritovore habitat and hibernating woodland mammals, insects and amphibians.

• And of course, Forest School Programmes to foster overall long term learning on safety skills, social skills and caring for nature as part of our “Look after yourself, each other and the wood” ethos.

Regular visits to the wood has also had the added bonus that we’ve helped to achieve the Trust’s Woodland Management Objectives

We carry out a site risk assessment for the places we visit which includes checking trees are safe especially after a storm. Even if we can’t deal with the hazard ourselves we still report it to the Woodland Trust so they can take the necessary action. Its not just trees - we’ve also put up warning signs to make other wood users aware of things like wasps nests near to where people might walk.

We’ve coppiced lots of hazel on rotation to help re-establish a copse - great for specific types of insects and woodland mammals that love coppiced stools (tiny stumps), great for plant biodiversity as more light hits the forest floor, great for detritovores as there’s more dead wood to feed on and great for other insects and carbon uptake as coppiced hazel has a surge of regrowth.

We’ve spotted and uprooted invasive species that have sprung up to curtail their spread including rhododendron and Himalayan Balsam, either to stop them getting established or to help keep them under control. At Gorse Covert Mounds we’ve pulled up massive amounts of bracken to create a green thatch for dens but left other types of slow growing fern in the hope that we get more plant diversity as bracken tends to get out of hand and take over if its not controlled.

After 8 years and 20,000 visitors we’ve seen how the woods have changed

Gorse Covert Mounds has seen a massive investment form the Woodland Trust in partnership with the Carbon Landscape. Pestfurlong Moss was a seasonally dry moss which, using plastic sheeting, has been re-wetted to encourage the rare mosses present, create miniponds for amphibians and dragonflies and keep the peat wet. This means it will hold the fixed carbon dioxide and encourage a long-term carbon sink.

The Woodland Trust has invested year on year through TCV (The Conservation Volunteers) to all but eradicate Rhododendron in the woodland next to the moss. This invasive species prevents any growth on the forest floor and harbours tree diseases but now its pretty much all but gone.

Next to the moss is Pestfurlong Hill where Woodland Trust Volunteers (Friends of Gorse Covert Mounds) have been busy planting gorse. They’ve also planted a fantastic willow tunnel which we sometimes run through on the way to our base camp in the woods. Year on year we’ve pitched in when they do their litter picks and Spring Cleans and helped when they’ve done tree work for the trust.

Semi Ancient Lumb Brook Valley has a dynamic stream running through it and has personal family ties. My dad used to play in these woods in the 1940s/50 - well before the massive housing development in Appleton. Whilst visiting relatives we would often go “up the Dingle” in the mid 1970s. The Dingle is far more accessible than it used to be (just an informal muddy path which threatened to slip you down the bank into Lumb Brook below).

Its noticeable these days how much higher the stream can get when it rains and how much suspended silt is present. At the other end of the spectrum we also saw the stream nearly dry out in Summer 2018 with just a trickle flowing under the pebble bed between sad little puddles. How climate change and local land use changes from agricultural to housing is a concern. After a big rain you can see how the bank has eroded in parts. At one location on the advice of the Trust’s site manager we tried to plant Goat Willow to help stabilise the bank but unfortunately it didn’t survive.

Our Flower Fairies events at Lumb Brook has educated families about plant identification and the value of ancient woodland

When we first started in 2014 we set up base camp downstream from Ford’s Rough on Dingle Lane. However the manual handling involved in setting up base camp became too much of an exertion as it involved parking up and heading down the bank, crossing the stream then up the other side. We fairly quickly settled with a base camp just upstream of the Bridge (built 1795!) on Dingle Lane and reasonable close to the road. This location has helped us set up/pack up quickly and also let people with not so good mobility and people with pushchairs get into the woods as far as our temporary base camp.

Lumb Brook Valley is a delight in spring with an array of woodland flowers including Wood Sorrel, Wood Anemones, Kingcups aka Marsh Marigolds, Wild Garlic, Lesser Celandine, Lords and Ladies, Herb Robert and of course Bluebells - English ones too. The damp air from the stream also means mosses, liverworts, ferns and various epiphytes (plants living on other plants).

Over the years, with the trusts permission, we’ve tried to incorporate coppicing/pruning of hazel and juvenile sycamore to encourage more forest floor plant biodiversity (so they get more light) and also to stabilise the bank such as when we’ve pruned back the odd hazel tree that might topple and take the bank with it. The trust has also done some tree work to make the wood less dark and more diverse. We took advantage of the excess wood chip by barrowing it to base camp to prevent it getting too muddy plus spreading it around to make sure the bluebells would find it easy to poke through.

New Moss Wood near Cadishead was planted for the millennium by the Woodland Trust and volunteers on degraded peat farmland. Its such a new wood it hasn’t had the opportunity to develop a diverse understorey like Lumb Brook Valley. To make the wood accessible for play we had to rake out areas amongst vast swathes of nettles. These areas had started to get more diverse with weedy like flowers such as creeping buttercup and common hogweed. With us not being there over lockdown the nettles have started to come back as well as invasive Himalayan Balsam which is prevalent on the Manchester Mosses especially along waterways.

Just like at Pestfurlong Trust the Woodland Trust and Carbon Landscape has invested in plastic sheeting in bunds to create natural fens, bogland and ponds to re-establish wetlands for habitat and a carbon sink reverting the area back to how it must of been in neolithic times.

One concern with the wood is that it might be overwhelmed by new housing developments near Irlam. Hopefully common sense will prevail and the surrounding area will stay as farmland or even better be re-wet or rewilded.

Snidley Moor near Frodsham has its own hillfort, mature woods and extended new(ish) plants on the sandstone ridge. This hilly wood has hosted various events but what made it extra special was the neolithic den building we carried out on school trips on a guided tour of the hillfort and its earthworks plus the fantastic vista overlooking the Mersey Estuary. Unfortunately over lockdown the wood became a victim of its own popularity with new parking restrictions nearby making it inaccessible for us to drop off all the kit we need to host an event and provide safe parking for our guests. Its still a wonderful wood to visit for a walk especially on the Sandstone Trail that runs through it.

St Benedicts Wood in Rainhill is our newest Woodland Trust wood. We like this wood because we can drive right up to base camp with no manual handling. The wood has a meadow that used to be a cricket pitch which is perfect for our large parachute games. We’ve started to see a lot of young ash trees dying from dieback which we’ve taken down to use for dens/dead hedges. Hopefully this will open the area to natural regeneration of healthy ash (which we leave) or other species such as sycamore. Alas this wood may also have some indirect impacts if the adjoining golf course is built on and surrounded by housing development. In the meantime the golf course has gone wild and locals have reported seeing deer on the course and in the wood.

Each wood has a unique activity such as the meadow at St Benedicts and our giant parachute

We’ve visited schools and helped them achieve their outdoor learning potential

We’ve regularly been to schools to help them develop a forest school area, given advice on tree planting and who to approach (such as the Woodland Trusts Free Trees for Schools). We’ve helped manage sights controlling nuisance upgrowth from nettles, brambles and blackthorn which has put off pupils and staff accessing the forest area, looked at tree safety and assessed the wildlife for learning (creating temporary cordoned off sections for miner bees and ant hills).

We’ve also helped schools overcome barriers to using outdoor areas by leading sessions with staff so they can get experience of the sorts of skills that enable them to access the outdoors confidently and to show how much their pupils get from being outside compared to into the classroom.

Its been a fabulous 8 years journey!

We’ve met so many interesting and wonderful people - kids, families, volunteers, residents out for a walk and just people out enjoying the outdoors.

Come and see what we are up to!

COVID - Attending events and what you can do to help

Please do not attend any of our events if you or the child in your care has–

o Been asked to isolate by another organisation such as a school or medial professional

o  

o You have a new continuous cough

o A high temperature

o Lost your sense of taste or smell

o Received a positive result from a covid test

Visit NHS website for more info.  https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/symptoms/

Help us reduce the risk of Covid19 and control the spread

You can help us control the risk from Covid at our events by:

Isolating if you have symptoms, recently had a positive covid test result or been asked to isolate

Record you’re with us on the form or using the QR code

Maintain social distance

Wear a face mask if you start to feel crowded (less than 1m)

Regularly wash your hands with the soapy water provided. Feel free to bring your own hand sanitizer.

Bring your own identifiable thermos cup or child’s water bottle for our free drinks – tea, coffee, squash.

Use your own loo before the event. If you use our outdoor loo please give it a quick spray.

Covid Policy 2021

Our Covid policy below

Fairy Forest School COVID19 Policy

Written by:         Rawdon Jones                                   Date: 21/15/2021            

Scope of Operations

Fairy Forest School Ltd provides outdoor educational activities and services in woodlands primarily based on forest school activities. We work in woodland sites providing activities for school trips, forest events and birthday parties and outdoor learning using exemplary teaching. We develop outdoor areas to deliver forest school activities. In addition we offer advice/consultancy on educational issues related to business, safety and sustainability. Fairy Forest School has a duty of care for leading activities and maintaining welfare however adult supervision by parents/school staff/carers are expected to also deliver their duty of care to the children they are supervising.

Commitment

Fairy Forest School has a legal commitment to follow Government Rules which undergo revision and change such as the number of people that can gather in different circumstances. Fairy Forest School will abide by these guidelines and its legal/ethical duty to reduce the spread of Covid.

Spread of Covid19

Covid 19 is spread primarily as an airborne contagion buffered in a liquid aerosol produced from coughing and breathing. This aerosol remains viable on surfaces and can then be transmitted by touching the face particularly eyes. Controls will therefore focus on:

1.       Reducing the risk of infected people attending events;

2.       Reducing the risk of substantial viral load through air;

3.       Reducing the risk of infection through touching shared surfaces;

4.       Recording attendees in the event of a requirement to trace.

Strategy for reducing Covid 19 Risk

Reducing the risk of infected people attending events

People will be asked to not attend the event if they have been asked to isolate or recently developed any symptoms as defined by the NHS at https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/symptoms/ . They will be advised to get a PCR test.

Symptoms are a high temperature, a new continuous cough or loss of taste or smell.

Fairy Forest School will achieve this by:

Asking staff to undergo a lateral flow test 48 hours before an event or weekly;

Sending a “Do not Attend If . . .” Covid correspondence to the email address to those that have booked on events or have organised an event such as a birthday party. And ask them to forward it to other attendees;

Sharing our Do Not Attend instruction on our web site and social media.

Reducing the risk of substantial viral load through air

 As an open air event the only enclosed areas are the toilet tent and cars. The tent is likely to only have one person in (or the same bubble if a parent helping a child go to the loo). We will discourage car sharing (unless in a bubble).

Our main control measure in open air is therefore Social Distancing which will be maintained at 2 metres by asking customers to maintain this through correspondence (what you can do to help), at the start of the session and by reminding them during the session – particularly when queuing for food, on bounce net and no sharing (outside bubble) in hammocks.

Where 2m cannot be maintained such as helping children toast marshmallows a face covering will be worn by staff. Staff will be reminded about coughing into elbows.

Reducing the risk of infection through touching shared surfaces

This will be achieved by regular hand washing, encouraging personal hygiene with staff and customers, surfaces and minimising contact with food.

Customers will receive correspondence on “what you can do to help” and be asked to share.

To reduce the risk of spread via touching wash stations of soap and water will be available at the loo, fire area (for when cooking), car, and play area.

Handling of food will be from the packet wherever possible. Cups will be available but to prevent the risk of transfer when cups are left we will encourage customers to bring their own.

Recording attendees in the event of a requirement to trace

A QR code will be generated and displayed at each site (located in the car window near site access & base camp). For those that want to use the NHS app.

A paper form to fill in will be circulated around before start and then kept at base camp for late arrivals to sign.

Paper records will be retained for 21 days before being destroyed.

Competency

Staff will undergo a toolbox talk on this Covid policy and control measures to reduce risk.

Covid roadmap and people attending our forest activities.

Each site we carry out forest school,and events has its own limitations on no.s due to parking, site sensitivity and so on. We’ve set out these numbers here.

However there are also Covid limits in place for social gathererings as outlined in the Governemnet Covid Roadmap which we also need to consider.

We are assuming by the time we begn operations on 29th May that we wil be at Step 3 of lockdown easing which should be met in mid May and lifted on 21st June.

This means that there can be no more than 30 people at a gathering. Step 2 easing implied that ‘people’ did not include children under 5 and staff although presently the guidance for step 3 is unclear and not that specific.

At this point we must therefore assume when we start up in May 29th people includes attending children, parents and staff.

How will we keep to the legal requirements outlined in the roadmap?

Our events including birthday parties require 2 to 3 members of staff as well as attending parents or an adult to provide care of their child in lieu of a parent.

Therefore we will limit numbers at open to all events (such as the May Flower Fairy Stream walk) to ensure 30 is not breached assuming a ratio of 1 child to 1 parent. Although this may be variable in practice

Please help us to ensure we do not breach this limit by:

1. Telling us how many adults are accompanying the children.

2. If practical have one parent instead of two attending.

3. Delegating another trusted parent that’s attending our event to take care of your children would also be very helpful if safe and practical to do so.

Birthday party guests

For those parents that have booked a party during step 3 we suggest you go for a smaller more intimate party. If you’d prefer a larger party we would be happy to arrange another slot once we have left step 3 (due but not guarenteed 21st June).

When sending out invites its important to tally up your own family, invited children and their attending parents. And finally remeber to include our 3 members of staff (we can advise if this is lower nearer the day. The total cannot exceed 30.

We will udate you on changes to this as the requirements become clearer.

Covid extra measures

As you can imagine we will be putting extra measures in place such as handwashing and facilitating track and trace as outlined in our Covid Risk assessment.

Please help us by maintaining social distancing.

You may also prefer to have your own hand sanitiser handy.

Thanks for your patience - Rawdon

ReLAUNCH Saturday 29th May 2021

We are really happy to annouce we are getting back to business from Saturday 29th May 2021.

We operate through licence agreement with our site owners and the restrictions on numbers has been lifted. Despite that we still need some time to get going again - writing Risk Assessments, getting outdoor first aid recertification that lapsed over lockdown, getting insureance, getting the car back on the road and so on and on. A start up little bit later down the road gives us a chance to generate interest and gain momentum too whilst keeping an eye on Covid rates. The late May Bank Holiday Weekend seems the best time to start up.

What better way to kick off than a Flower Fairy Hunt in the stream at Lumb Brook Valley!