If you’ve decided to Home School, Flexi-School or defer school entry for your child/ren, we offer a full day of curiosity and nature on Thursdays for children aged 4-11 to spend in our Forest School in beautiful private ancient woodland.
Our aim is to deliver the highest quality of care and education in a unique outdoor setting, giving your child the chance to grow and learn in nature.
We aim to provide Home Ed days at Badgers Bridge that include our curiosity approach to support your child’s learning and development and to work together with you to best meet your child’s individual needs.
About Us
Badgers Bridge are passionate about giving children and families meaningful learning and play experiences, along with encouraging curiosity in the outdoor environment. We run our Home Ed group alongside our nursery, Holiday Clubs and After School Clubs. All staff are fully qualified as teachers, practitioners or Forest School Leaders.
What We Do
We run forest school sessions in the beautiful, private ancient woodland near Lyminge in Kent. Activities include fire lighting, campfire cooking, nature learning, natural crafts, shelter building, team work, woodwork and tool use and much, more. In our sessions, children can explore and follow their own learning, play and develop friendships, supported by qualified staff and forest school leaders. Our mission is to give children real skills, foster curiosity, support real freedom in their play and learning, reconnect and discover through nature.
A Typical Day
No two days are the same in the forest environment. The child-led, play-based nature of our setting means that the children’s interests and imaginations lead our planning of activities. We plan in the moment and use the Curiosity approach to learning and developing.
A typical day will look something like this.
| 9.15 | Children arrive. Welcome circle where we greet and check in with one another and remind the group of our three rules: Look After Yourself, Look After Each Other, Look After the Woods. We remind the children of the boundaries of the woods and where we can explore.
Group games are played in the woodland, using our social skills, keeping physically active and exploring the woods. Exploration of the woodland and nature based activities: bird spotting, bug hunting, tree and plant identification games; assisting with woodland maintenance such as coppicing or landscaping, or splitting firewood |
| 10.15 | Snacks around the campfire, with music making or mindfullness games. |
| 11.00 | Free play and opportunity to engage in many activities: firelighting, woodwork, den building, play cooking in the mud kitchen. |
| 12.00 | Lunch. |
| 12.45 | Free play and outdoor art and craft, pottery, painting; baking or continuing the morning’s interests. |
| 14.00 | Storytelling |
| 14.30 | Tidy up and circle time with reflection and gratitudes. Get ready for home time. |
Hours, Fees and Places
Our Home Ed days currently run on Thursdays, from 9.15am-2.45pm, term time only.
Children attend for the full day, without their parents / carers (though you are welcome to stay for the first session to help your child to settle in). All new children will start with a ‘taster day’ if they have not attended any of our sessions before, then commit to attending weekly sessions, following Kent term dates. This allows for the group to bond and for the forest school ethos of ‘long term provision’ to be met.
Fees are £35 per day. Fees are paid monthly in advance with an additional £20 joining fee.
In line with our Forest School ethos, we have high adult to child ratios – our maximum group size for Home Ed days is 15 children, with three Forest School Leaders.
Our high adult to child ratios allow us to give time and attention to each child; talk with them about their interests and activities; allow children to experience and benefit from the activities we provide, especially those with beneficial risk involved such as tool use and fire lighting; and allow the children to explore and be adventurous in safety.
Ethos
At Badgers Bridge our ethos is about fostering curiosity. We believe in child-led learning, planning in the moment and see our roles as facilitators and not deliverers of a curriculum. As part of that learning we aim to follow and plan around the children’s needs and interests at all times. We have fun discovering what the forest has to offer us!
If you have any questions or would like to visit our unique nursery, please contact us to make an appointment
01303 862951
