Each year, Forest School Singapore undergo two phases of policy & program updates and changes. They are all done with the heart of our community of children, coaches, parents, and other fellow community members at its core. For most of you who have been with us the past years, you will be familiar with this.
(1) Change in ENROLMENT AGE FOR Weekly Senior Sessions
Details of Change:
1. Enrolment Age for Sparrow & Bulbul will be adjusted to 7 – 9 years old
2. Enrolment Age for HomeNest will be adjusted to 4 – 9 years old
3. Existing children are welcome to stay on beyond the age limit of the Senior Classes.
Reason & Rationale:
Starting from now (2023), we will only receive children between the age of 7 to 9 years old after advisories from our senior class coaches. This is because children from 10 years old onwards tend to exhibit many more behavioral challenges that is beyond the the age-group work that we do in FSS. Singaporean children aged 10 years old and above (city living) tend to gravitate to more adventurous and challenge driven focus that is unlike most of our younger aged kiddos. We are sensitive to the needs of our children and their psychological state. Many of them also experience a changing stage in their life, that a new introduction to Forest School would be inappropriate compared with a more tweens centric program that runs on the challenge-focus items instead of the open-ended experience.
However, children who are previously in FSS before the age of 10 are welcome to continue until they wish to graduate. This is because of the FSS foundation that is embedded in them, hence they will have less adaptation to do in the process.
Our existing school system has warped many of our young ones with many of their control mechanisms that it is a different challenge that requires a different tween approach to attend to the tweens’ needs. You can explore the Full Day Camps and Overnight Hike, for your tweens as it is tilted to address the challenge-focus of our tweens.
(2) Change in Training Programmes for Adults
Details of Change:
1.. ‘FSST (Public)’ will now become ‘FSW’ (Workshop for Adults)
2. FSW consists of ‘Parent Workshop’ and ‘Educator Workshop’
Reason & Rationale:
FSW will now be the arm for adults’ workshops for educating and introducing both parents and educators to the Forest School ways as well as actionables to bring FS ways to their families and establishment. The change from FSS Training to FS Workshop for adults is due to our realisation that it takes a different commitment and mindset to be doing the full fledged Forest School that is in FSS. We want to continue sharing, but not lose the standards and essence of FSS trainees who will come onboard to FSS as coaches. Hence, the adults’ experience and introduction of FSS will be adjusted to FS Workshop to allow Parents and Educators to be able to learn about Forest School and apply it in their own settings without the commitments and large paradigm shift (for most city folks) of a FSS Coach. This will allow the FS ways to grow contextually in the mainstream setting while still retaining the wilderness essence of FSS in the coaches deployed in our programs
(3) *NEW* Full Day Camp program
Details of Change:
- 9.00am to 5.00pm (8-hours, with Lunch Break)
- Age Range: 7 – 12 years old
- Frequency: Once / Quarter
- Fee per Child: $130 per pax
- Total Group Size: 20
- Lunch at Bukit Timah Hawker Centre ($10 Allowance Per Child)
- Start at DFNP Carpark A, End at Sunset Way Block 103
- Hike, Play & Learn From Dairy Farm Nature Park to Clementi Forest
Reason & Rationale:
We introduce the new full day camp, after realising how we can introduce lunch into our camp without having the logistics, health-safety and choice-issue consideration of catering for it. The option of lunch at a hawker centre is not only a practice of independence and choice; it is also a unique experience for many children to be eating at a hawker centre / food court together with their friends with the liberty of choice and participating in the full process with the trust and empowerment for themselves.
Of course, the long 7km worth of hike throughout the sun/rain filled day will also provide them with a sense of challenge and growth in stamina and health.
(4) Ceasing of Family Walks from 2023
Reason & Rationale:
This decision is made with the realisation that parents can bring their children out on their own after attending FSWS for parents. The withdrawal of families in a family walk also drops the session volume at a higher impact rate thus it makes no operational sense for us to continue it as a public program where we have to bear the load of all these changes. However, we are open to do Family Walk as part of Projects (aka on request and demands only). Do email us at forestschoolsingapore@gmail.com if you like to plan for a private program.
(5) *NEW* Media Sharing Arrangement (For Weekly Sessions ONLY)
Details of Change:
- Parents can opt in to get Dropbox folder link of the semester
(It will be about 20 weeks worth of media content)
- Every class will have their own link.
- For Parents who wants the link, it will be SGD$40.00 per Semester
- Link will be shared on 1 June & 1 December if they opt in for this option
- Link will be taken down 30 June & 30 December.
- Weekly Media Upload will still be available as usual (Complimentarily)
Reason & Rationale
From Lenora (a FSS Master Coach & Parent to Livvi in Homenest Friday)
”A few parents have expressed difficulty in keeping up with the current rhythm of photos sharing/clearing. I’ve also noticed some lag in coach photo sharing on the weekly basis. Recently I’ve been given access to Livvi’s Bobcat photos in 2021 and 2022. Having the opportunity to view her growth in one go was invaluable. These were some initial thoughts I noted down:
I feel so lucky to have the opportunity to look through the photos. Every week is so different with interlacing themes. And the children growing;..watching the Bobcats play, I feel they really embody the spirit of FS.. in their own way. Cassius is so precious, so is Ethan and Ayaka and Tara, Julian.. the whole bunch! Having one and seeing her play is different from seeing a whole lot of them. In my everyday life, I ask her to keep up with the daily requirements of life. In HomeNest, the young ones also need to keep up with the older.. But when the whole group is allowed to be at their pace, it’s so precious. I felt strongly that I wouldn’t have been able to get the same big picture if I only looked through pictures I download (mostly of Livvi) even if the time frame is extended to two years.”
As for the rationale of $40, there is storage cost for storing close to 100GB of media content on cloud systems per year. On top of it, we will need to employ resources to manage the logistics and coordinate the content to be able to share with everyone properly.
(6) Change in Timing of programs
Details of Change:
- Weekly Sessions will have two time frame
- Morning : 9.00AM to 12.00NN (no change)
- Afternoon : 3.00PM to 6.00PM (changed from 3.30PM – 6.30PM)
- Adults Workshops & One-Day Camps will all start at the following time frame
- Morning : 9.30AM to 12.30PM (changed from 9.00PM – 12.00NN)
- Afternoon : 3.30PM to 6.30PM (changed from 3.00PM – 6.00PM)
*If you are still unsure, you will just need to follow the timing stated on our website program pages.
Reason & Rationale:
The changes for program timing are to help us coordinate our programs so that the gathering area will not be overly crowded, while allowing the programs to happen together in the same space.
(7) Change in LAUNCH SeasonS
Details of Change:
1. FS WEEKLY SESSION enrolment:
- 2 May – 30 May
(For 2023 2nd Semester) - 31 Oct – 21 Nov
(For 2024 1st Semester)
2. FS CAMPS (Children) registration opening:
- 3 January 2023 onwards
(For February 2023 to July 2023) - 4 July 2023 onwards
(For August 2023 to January 2024)
3. FS WORKSHOPS (Adult) registration opening:
- 3 January 2023 onwards
Reason & Rationale:
This change will allow us to better organise and communicate registrations in a mentally healthier pace so that we do not burnout from the process. This also helps us to plan better in terms of scheduling.
(8) Change in Recruitment Model
Details of Change:
Recruitment will be done via FSS Coach Recruitment 6-weeks Course. More details can be found via the link below.
Reason & Rationale:
Instead of recruitment via public training, recruitment will now occur via a process of Training, Orientation, Attachment, Study & Assessment. The new recruitment model will allow us to ensure that people who join us as a coach will have more consistency in terms of understanding our essence. It also puts new trainee coaches through an intense process to filter those who are committed to the process while remunerating them fairly for their time.
*Updated as of 03 Dec 2022