🌈 The Coaches, Parents, Children, Other Forest School
Coaches / Practitioners Capacity
To ensure that the programs can be delivered with authenticity and sincerity
The coaches are the key individuals who ensure the integrity of Forest School. It is important to put effort into the development and realisation of potential for the coaches. A mix of formal guided training, together with experiential components that pairs with deeper reflection can enhance the capacity of the people we work with.Â
Do not do it in the usual Professional Development style of sending people to things they are uninterested in. Just as Forest School is a child-led approach, the training of coaches must reflect the trust in people to be able to grow through their own interest and motivation.
Parents’ Capacity
To ensure the collective growth of the community
Parents play a crucial role in QC-ing the quality of the session. They also offer glimpses into the children’s potential and issues. It is important to support the parents’ Forest School journey as well. A parent that could carry on the spirit of FS beyond the session will expand the collective potential of the community
Children’s Capacity
To ensure the wellness and empowerment of our children
FS children are the inspiration and idea-generating source of how the Forest School community will develop. As a child-led FS, the wellness and empowerment of our children guide our decision-making. As long as we always prioritise their welfare and growth, we will be on the right path.
Other Forest Schools
To Support their practices, and encourage more variety in practice, and the rise of collective wisdom together
Forest School is a community endeavour. It is inevitable that the wellness of other Forest Schools will affect our own practice and health. A mix of competition and collaboration is healthy for the larger ecosystem of Forest Schools. When trouble comes, the community will have a variety of practices that can address the issue together. Monocropping the FS-es will be detrimental in the long run. Hence, we encourage everyone to support each other in organic ways (no need to sign contracts etc), and also have more conversations to learn and fine tune our own practice (in the process differentiating, by finding our own FS identity).
E.g. for Reference : Child Social EmotionalProfiling | Ops Post SessionAssessments | Parent-Orientation | FS Recruitment Training Report
The following references will be available via email request to forestschoolsingapore@gmail.com, as the files are too big, and will contain content that require contextual explanations:
FSS Training Collections (2016-2024)
FSS Coaches & Parents Reflection Collection (2016-2024)