Inside Holt Country Park’s new forest school

Date published: 17th December 2020

Wild By Nature, a new forest school set up by Davina Landers, Diana Leo and Gemma Thody has proven to be a big success.

The forest school, set up in the Green Flag Award winning Holt Country Park, is already fully subscribed with a view to expand.

Forest schools are child-centred outdoor learning programmes set in a natural environment, exploring early years learning through play, social interaction and exploration.

The ethos of forest schooling seeks to explore the young child’s learning and development holistically, rather than academically.

The nature of forests and woodlands such as Holt Country Park, means that the children can explore the natural surroundings, taking in all the wildlife and learning about the environments they live in, whilst learning vital social skills outside the conventional classroom setting.

Davina and Diana, two of the founders of Wild By Nature, grew up in Holt and spent their childhood years exploring the woodlands they now teach children in.

See inside the forest school: 

 

Colin Brown, Sports, Recreation and Countryside Manager, said:

“We have been planning this for the last 12 months and we’re delighted that we’ve got to where we are today and I’m really looking forward to working with them to grow this project into the future.”

Cllr. Virginia Gay, Portfolio Holder for Leisure, Wellbeing and Culture said: “We're so pleased that Holt Country Park is the setting for such a wonderful outdoor learning project.

It’s so important that children get to experience the beautiful environment we have around us and learn how to look after nature”

View Wild by Nature’s website for more information about their forest school.