HOME EDUCATION GROUPS
Exeter Forest School
Family Sessions
Fridays, 9.30am – 12 midday (£8 per family, per session)
For those with children under the age of 6 we are pleased to offer morning sessions at Exeter for you to come to with your child(ren). These sessions are run by Chris but the parents are actively encouraged to suggest activities and join in wherever possible. Each week we have a pre-planned activity, from using tools to make amazing woodland creations, to getting involved cooking some tasty campfire treats. In addition to this, we thoroughly encourage the children to have plenty of time to investigate the woods, make new friends and enjoy the opportunity to play and explore, unhindered by adults!
These popular sessions need to be booked in advance using our online booking system, payment is made at the time of booking and places are allocated on a first come first served basis.
Autumn 1: 8th, 15th, 22nd, 29th September and 6th, 13th, 20th October
Autumn 2: 3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th November and 1st, 8th, 15th December
Exmouth Forest School
Monday Sessions – these sessions have evolved into one of our favourites at Exmouth! The sessions are for children over 6 years old, and can be booked as a half day or full day. Our experienced leaders are on hand to help encourage the children to have fun in a relaxed environment, learning through their own exploration and intrigue, embarking upon forest school activities in a child-led fashion. It gives them the opportunity to thrive as part of a group, embarking upon challenges and games, learning new skills, developing socially and emotionally along the way. It will also be a session which encourages child-led play allowing them to simply be in the woods with no pressure to fulfil any agenda other than their own. We feel this is as important a part of forest school as any other aspect.
Tuesday Sessions – are for children aged 8 and above. They will have all the same opportunities as our Monday group, only with more of a focus on project based learning. As a trial, with the intention to eventually run across term time throughout the year, these sessions will allow children to continue to learn and engage in activities at their own pace, however we will be collaborating with the group to develop some ongoing projects and learning journeys that will become a part of each week. As experienced Forest School Leaders, we will have suggestions and options for the group to get stuck into, however we will encourage the group to work together to create their own ideas and agendas to focus upon.
Okehampton Forest School
Okehampton Forest School offers sessions for home educated children aged 6 and over. The sessions will have pre-planned activities which will include traditional forest school activities from fire lighting, den building, woodwork, campfire cooking; to tool usage and crafts using the natural environment, together with a range of other activities. The children will have opportunities to play team games to encourage co-operation and team spirit, to explore and play in the woodland and make new friendships within their peer group. To develop good listening and communication skills, children will be encouraged to come up with ideas for activities which they will take turns to deliver as leaders in the afternoon.
Home Education Provision
For children aged 6 and above
We are thrilled to offer provision for home educated children at our Exeter, Exmouth and Okehampton Forest Schools. These run on different days dependent on location, please see below for details.
Mondays @ Exmouth (full or half days)
Tuesdays @ Exmouth (full days)
Wednesdays @ Okehampton (full or half days)
Thursdays @ Exeter (full days)
Fridays @ Exeter (full or half days)
Session times:
Mornings : 9am – 12midday
Afternoons : 12.30pm – 3.30pm
Full day : 9am – 3.30pm
Please note that we work to the Devon County Council Term dates.
Autumn Term
Term starts: 4th September 2017
Half term: 23rd – 27th October
Terms ends: 15th December 2017
These sessions are an amazing opportunity for home educated students to come along by themselves for the equivalent of a whole school day and participate in forest school activities. No two days are the same in our home ed groups and we encourage the children to suggest projects and activities that they would like to take part in as well as spending time with their friends simply being children in the woods.
We find these days are a wonderful chance for home educated children to learn about themselves within a group, how to react positively to challenge and how to think independently and analytically to create solutions to obstacles as well as having a whole heap of muddy fun!
How to book and pay
Please get in touch by email or using the ‘contact us’ button below to check what places we have available and what session/s would suit your child best. Once a child’s place has been confirmed by email, parents will be invoiced on a monthly basis and a registration form will be sorted at the first session.
Sessions cost £15 for half day provision and £30 for full day provision. We offer a 10% sibling discount as well as a 10% ‘double day’ discount for those booking onto two days, this is in addition to the sibling discount. Additionally, we are set up to receive payment via a number of childcare voucher schemes as well as the new government scheme – Tax Free Childcare. https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/
We are happy to offer a free taster session for each child/family, giving you the opportunity to come along and see how our sessions run before committing to booking in for a full run of sessions. However, please note that we can only offer these where there are spaces available.
Payment Policy
Please note that if your child is booked in for the term you will be expected to pay for all sessions, whether or not your child actually attends. Should you wish to cancel your child’s place, we require two weeks notice in writing (email will suffice) and you are expected to pay for any sessions booked in this notice period. We will assume a child booked in for a term if we have confirmed their booking by email.
We will check in with you at the end of each term to see if you want your child to continue into the next term, please note there will be a deadline to let us know if you still require a space for your child(ren).
In the event of a cancellation due to circumstances outside our control (eg bad weather), a refund will not be provided, however an effort will be made to find alternative dates or sessions for participants to attend. No guarantee of availability for alternative sessions is given.
In the event of a cancellation due to circumstances within our control a refund will be given.
