Boots & Brambles Forest School

A beautiful day in the woods yesterday, running not one but two Boots & Brambles Forest School Parties!

🟥🟩 We started off with a Wildcraft Party and had lots of fun...
🪵 Collecting resources
🪙 Trading in the market
🔨 Using tools
🔥 Trying fire lighting

Then we finished the day with Den Building fun where we...
⛺️ Built our own shelters
🪵 Made wooden medallions
🌳 Crafted wooden swords
🫧 Chased giant bubbles

🔥🍡Is there a better way to celebrate turning 7 than to toast marshmallows with your mates on a campfire?

🎉 A HUGE thank you to everyone who came along - we hope you had as much fun as we did! Please feel free to tag us in / share any pictures you may have taken!

🎉 Limited party availability remaining for 2026 🎉

🎉 A beautiful day in the woods yesterday, running not one but two Boots & Brambles Forest School Parties!

🟥🟩 We started off with a Wildcraft Party and had lots of fun...
🪵 Collecting resources
🪙 Trading in the market
🔨 Using tools
🔥 Trying fire lighting

Then we finished the day with Den Building fun where we...
⛺️ Built our own shelters
🪵 Made wooden medallions
🌳 Crafted wooden swords
🫧 Chased giant bubbles

🔥🍡Is there a better way to celebrate turning 7 than to toast marshmallows with your mates on a campfire?

🎉 A HUGE thank you to everyone who came along - we hope you had as much fun as we did! Please feel free to tag us in / share any pictures you may have taken!

🎉 Limited party availability remaining for 2026 🎉

🌧️🌲 Forest School Reality Check! 🌲🌧️

When people think about spending time outdoors on rainy days, they often picture a quick wet playtime or an hour in the rain. But a full day outside in torrential, non-stop rain? That's a whole different adventure!

Yesterday, our Forest School group spent the entire day embracing the elements during our Stone Age session, and what a day it was! ☔

Working outdoors isn't just about getting wet. It's about:
🌦️ Adapting plans to suit the weather
🪵 Swapping resources and deciding what can survive a soaking
😊 Keeping motivation and morale high
🧥 Drying out kit afterwards
🧽 Cleaning and sorting everything ready for next time
💚 Knowing when people have reached their limit and need a break

Despite the rain falling relentlessly all day, our group absolutely smashed it!

They:
🏕️ Built natural shelters
🪓 Crafted Stone Age tools and weapons
🎨 Created Stone Age art
💧 Collected rainwater
🚿 Enjoyed plenty of rain showers
🤸 Jumped in puddles
🍹 Sampled our homemade elderflower cordial

And the best part?
Not one single moan about the rain. Not one.

Just laughter, resilience, teamwork, muddy boots, soggy sleeves and a fantastic attitude from start to finish.

Days like this remind us that some of the best adventures happen when conditions aren't perfect. 🌧️🦣🔥
Days like this remind us that a little rain doesn't stop big adventures. 🌧️🦣🔥
Days like this remind us that memories are often made in the muddiest, wettest moments. 🌧️🦣🔥

Well done everyone – you fully embraced your soggy Stone Age adventure! 🌧️🦣🔥

🌿More children can recognise a brand logo than an elderflower... let's change that!🌿 🌿

✨ Teaching children about the world around them is one of the most valuable parts of Forest School ✨🌿

This time of year is perfect for foraging elderflower 🌼 over the last few weeks we’ve been getting hands-on learning all about it!
In a world where more children can recognise company logos before native plants, helping children build knowledge and connection with the natural world has never been more important 🌍💚

We are incredibly lucky that our site is full of natural treasures 🍃✨ Over time we’ve foraged, harvested and created:
🌼 Elderflower cordial
🥞 Elderflower fritters
🌿 Nettle crisps
🍯 Dandelion honey
🫐 Blackberry jam
🍑 Damson jam
🌹 Rosehip syrup
🥧 Cherry pie
But knowledge and education always come first.

Over the last few weeks we have:
🔍 Learnt how to identify elderflower correctly
🌱 Discussed plants it could be mistaken for and how to safely check identification
🐝 Talked about responsible foraging – taking no more than 25%, leaving plenty for bees and wildlife
🍋 Prepared our elderflowers ready to make delicious elderflower cordial

One of the most important lessons? Just because something grows naturally doesn’t automatically mean it’s safe to eat ⚠️

Some plants are edible 🌿
Some plants are harmful ☠️
Some plants must be prepared or cooked before eating 🔥

We always make sure we are 100% certain what something is and where it came from before consuming it ✅ This is such an important message for children to learn — curiosity is wonderful, but knowledge and safe practice matter.

Forest School isn’t just about mud and campfires 🌲🔥 It’s about creating children who notice, question, understand and value the world around them 💚
Now we can’t wait to taste the results🥤✨
ChildhoodUnplugged OutdoorEducation Elderflower

🌅 On Monday we celebrated a special birthday watching the sun rise over the ocean. Saturday we ended the day paddleboarding on the lake, remembering the short but deeply loved life of our tiniest wildling. 🦋🌼

9 years.
108 months.
3,287 days.
78,888 hours.

9 years sounds like such a big number. So much has happened in that time, yet the day we lost you still feels like yesterday. 💚

Not a day goes by that we don’t think of you. You are part of all that we do.

Born too soon, too small, and too poorly for this world — but forever part of our story, forever the heart of our woods. 🌿💚

🌼🌿Over these years we’ve found healing where we feel closest to you — outside, amongst the trees, beside the water, under open skies. Nature has held us through grief in ways words never could.🌿

Through loss we have also found something we never expected — community. We feel incredibly lucky that grief led us to friendships, support and purpose through where we now collaborate to run monthly Forest School sessions for bereaved families, creating spaces to connect, remember and simply be together. And through the SANDS football team , where bereaved dads find support, understanding and people who just get it.

Forever loved.
Forever missed. 🦋🌼

🌿✨ May 2026 – that’s a wrap! ✨🌿

What a fantastic month we’ve had here at Boots & Brambles Forest School Ltd 🍃💚

This month we’ve…

🌸 Celebrated May Day with barefoot walks, May Day crowns, Green Man models and beautiful nature art

🚑 Held a woodland First Aid day where we built our very own Woodland Hospital – complete with helipad and security checkpoint!

🐝 Celebrated World Bee Day by building bee hives, completing bee challenges and making our own beeswax candles

🎉 Hosted two lovely outdoor parties – one inspired by a favourite story and one packed with den building fun

🌲 Enjoyed another wonderful Into the Woods with Zephyr’s Family Session alongside the amazing team at Zephyr’s, welcoming both familiar and new faces

☀️ Held a sunny May Day Family Session

🪵 Ran TWO sold out Stone Age Survivors Holiday Clubs!

And now… we’re looking ahead to another busy month in the woods 🌳✨

Coming up in June:

🍂 Weekly AP sessions
🌱 Weekly Primary SEMH intervention sessions
🌿 Weekly SEMH sessions for local secondary schools
🎈 Three outdoor parties
🌳 Into the Woods with Zephyr’s Family Session – Saturday 27th June
🏫 Transition sessions for our local primary school children

Looks like another exciting month ahead here at Boots & Brambles ForestSchool 💚🍃

Thank you to all our wonderful families, schools and children for making May so special ✨

✨️🌿Sometimes it’s hard to explain the magic of Forest School to those who haven’t experienced it…
“So you just let the kids play in the woods?”
Well… yes — but it’s so much more than that.🌱✨️

As Forest School practitioners, our role is to facilitate and guide while giving children the freedom to choose their own activities, take risks, solve problems, and learn in ways that are meaningful to them.💚

✨️🌳Today Holiday Club we saw incredible collaboration, teamwork, perseverance and determination.

🌱🌿 We watched friendships form, ideas grow, and imaginative games develop naturally.

🌳🪲There were zipwires and swings created and tested, treasure excavated, bugs hunted, and treetop water runs engineered! The hammock proved very popular too… perhaps a little too popular at times, ending with a few giggles on the ground!🤣

🪵We whittled spears, experimented with Hapa Zome and cyanotype printing, made Stone Age costumes and cooled off with ice pops in the shade of the canopy.🌿

A fantastic day with a brilliant bunch of children. 🌿✨️

Huge thanks to all the parents, carers and children who joined us this week. That’s a wrap on our May Half Term Holiday Sessions! ✅️

🌞We’ll be back in the Summer Holidays for more woodland adventures — Summer Holiday Clubs and Sessions are now open for booking via our website!🌞

🌿🌳🥵 There's no denying it...
Today was DEFINITELY the HOTTEST day we've had

🌿🌳 BUT we were DEFINITELY in the right place under the shade of the canopy in the woods for our Stone Age Survivors Holiday Club! 🌳🌿

🌿🌳 The children were fantastic, it's been a lovely, chilled out day full of...
⛺️ Den building
🌳 Swing making
🌿 Tree climbing
🫧 Bubble blowing
🔨 Tool use
🥄 Potion mixing
🌳 Nature crafting
🍡 Cooling off with an ice pop under the trees!

🌳 A HUGE thanks and well done to all the children - you DEFINITELY survived the SCORCHIO Stone Age! 🥵

🌳 Thank you too to the parents/carers for booking then on - a cool shower may well be in order!!

🌳🌿 Roll on tomorrow for day two of our Stone Age Survivors Holiday Club! 🌿🌳

🌞 🌳 100% the BEST place to be this morning!

🌳The woods are SO lovely and shaded!

💐 A HUGE thanks to everyone who came along to today's May Day Family Session! 💐

🌳 Please feel free to tag us in / share any photos from today's session at Boots & Brambles Forest School

🔥 Forest School Update 🔥
As much as we all love toasted marshmallows and a good campfire, during this heatwave we’ll be pressing pause on fires at Boots & Brambles Forest School 🌲☀️

🌳 Part of being Forest School Leader is teaching children to respect and care for the woods — and lighting a fire in the daytime, in a hot, dry forest in a heatwave, just doesn't feel right to us!

Don’t worry though… we’ll still be bringing the fun (and helping everyone stay cool) with some tasty chilled treats instead! 🧊