Woodland Buddhas Forest School

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

Hi everybody

We hope you are all keeping well and like us looking forward to Spring. Green shoots of intrepid first blooms are already starting to appear in time for Imbolc, and the extra light that now welcomes in and closes down our days is very welcome indeed!

Now we have some sad news to share with you.

We have recently learnt that access to the woodland site in Stanmer park that we rent for our Forest School and Birthday party sessions will become severely restricted in the future.

This is due to the managing agents we rent the site from, Brighton & Hove Food Partnership, raising our rent by 700%! We cannot and will not pass this increase onto our customers, and so this increase in site rental is making it unfeasible for us and many other small community groups to use it.

This is a terrible blow for small businesses like ours, who already operate within very small margins but who are utterly dedicated to offering activities that help bring children and young people closer to nature.

We know how educationally and socially valuable it is, we believe it is essential for young minds and hearts to have access to experiential play experiences in the natural world, so that they recognise and strengthen their connection to it, and so grow into roles of custodians rather than consumers.

It is made doubly hard to take, seeing that the current sites have been developed through many hours of donated creativity and hard work to establish them as viable rental prospects for BHFP. Nearly three years ago Woodland Buddhas started to rent the woodland site, and over months of voluntary work, we and some others have developed it with care into what it is now.

There would be no fire circle, parachutes, tyre swings, bird boxes, woodland theatre, mud kitchen or marble run - that everyone enjoys the use of - without us having established them.

So we wanted to let you know our situation at the start of this year. We are so sorry not to be able to currently offer any firm dates for either sessions or bespoke birthday parties. We are currently looking for alternative sites that we could use or even develop from scratch and will post updates on our progress.

Should you be thinking of asking us to host a Birthday party in the coming months please do still get in touch, as we hope to find another home to relocate to very soon.

And if you know of any local sites that might be up for welcoming us please do get in touch!

We wish you peace and joy out in nature . May you be happy may you be well may you feel free 🙏💚💚

Happy New Year everyone! May it be a healthy and happy one - and may we find shelter from the storm when we need it 👍🙏💖

Merry Christmas to all our customers with love and best wishes from Woodland Buddhas ! Hope to see you in the woods soon
Best, Caro & Georgia 👍🙏🎄🔥💚💚

Happy Winter Solstice All - we made it! Here’s to a little more light every day to help guide your way back to Spring
🙏💙💙

Autumn wood fairy 🍁🔥🍁🧚‍♂️

Happy Samhain everyone - the traditional Celtic festival celebrating the transition from Summer to Winter . May the fire warm you and the stars lead your way 🙏🔥

Happy Samson everyone - the traditional Celtic celebration marking the transition from Summer to Winter 🙏🔥