Hi all,
Here is the questionnaire if you want to get straight to it!
In March 2025 we’ll be celebrating 10 years of DSP Forest School. To mark this huge milestone for our community, we are hoping to create some resources in the next 12 months that record our journey and support others to offer outdoor learning to more children. Below are our ideas and we hope to use your contributions to make this rich and meaningful.
- Book that is a record of ten years of Forest school in DSP. Mainly for the DSP community and for those with a keen interest in Forest school. To include: Origin story, descriptive blogs, case studies, parent feedback, staff stories, children’s stories, photographs.
- Pamphlet for other schools. Inspiration and information for setting up outdoor learning in other schools.
- Video helping others understand what forest school is and its benefits.
- Session plans – Series of 8 session plans linked with the Irish curriculum to support teachers in a practical way to get started with Forest school. One set on Irish mammals for Autumn, one set on native flowers for Spring time.
- Website – easy, accessible centre point for all above resources.
- Launch event – March 2025 (First session was Friday 20th March 2015!) To launch the above resources.
This project is being led by a committee including Jenny Dungan and Liz McMahon from the DSP Forest School team and Sarah Sheeran and Yuuki Blakeney the PTA Chairs 23/24. It is being supported by Principal Miriam Hurley and the school staff. We kicked this project off by gathering stories of the benefits of Forest School from parents on the 7th February. Thank you very much to those who attended! Parents shared some fantastic benefits including a sense of freedom, caring for nature, creativity, leadership and confidence.
10 years of Forest School – DSPNS
We are now looking to hearing more stories from anyone who couldn’t make the gathering via a 10 minute questionnaire. We would really appreciate it if you could tell your children’s stories and support this project. Forest school questionnaire
Many thanks for your support,
Jenny, Liz, Yuuki and Sarah