This highly interactive and experiential course aims to provide educators with an introduction to nature based and forest school approach to learning. Participants will learn strategies and resources through which they can effectively integrate the learning resource of their natural environment into the curriculum cultivating engagement with the natural world as a rich learning environment in which to learn, play and create. Participants will learn strategies to increase ecoliteracy as they create contexts for numeracy and literacy, and also will cover strands of SESE history, geography, art and science subjects, amongst others. There is also a focus on creating active citizens and community stewards through nature based learning through the curriculum.

The course will also explore the many benefits of learning with nature and how wellbeing and behaviour might be supported, including opportunities to develop social skills, sensory experiences and movement breaks. On completion of this course, educators will have the skills and resources which will allow them to deliver an effective nature based education programme to their students in their own school context.

This is an outdoor course so please dress for the weather and wear comfortable walking shoes.

Kilkenny Forest School delivers forest school and nature based education programmes to schools and communities along the Nore. Forest School is an outdoor experiential learning approach where children learn social, personal and technical skills. It offers children the opportunity to learn, play and create in a woodland or outdoor setting.