The Role of The Forest School Educator

Forest School Canada
Educators in a forest school setting enjoy being in natural places and working with children. They believe in play-based learning in the outdoors. According to Forest School Canada

"A Forest and Nature School educator wears many hats. They slip seamlessly from playmate to researcher, at times actively participating in her students’ exploration, while at other times maintaining a distance to listen and observe, and at other times stepping in as site and risk manager. They believe in the importance—and the joy!—of not simply permitting but encouraging children to get dirty and wet in order to experience a sense of connection to place, and to fall down in order to experience a sense of accomplishment when they get back up, or trust in a peer when they are helped back up."

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The document "Forest and Nature School in Canada: A Head, Heart, Hands Approach to Learning" states that  the role of the educator in a forest school includes

Sparking Engagement: By modeling enthusiasm for nature play, the educator encourages children who might be nervous or new to outdoor play. Forest and Nature School educators act as a creative spark for the group, encouraging the growth of new  ideas by making available to the children materials, resources, and experiences that expand their creative, imaginative, and exploratory play. An educator might bring a personal story that sends the children off into stories of their own or ask a question that encourages the children to look more deeply into something thatthey have found.

Observing: Once the children are engaged in exploration, the educator steps back to give the children space to play and explore. This is an opportunity to become an observer, watching the children’s interactions with each other and the site, collecting and documenting these experiences, and using this knowledge to enhance future outdoor learning.

Learning Alongside Children: The educator gets dirty, explores,creates, builds, learns, gains knowledge, celebrates alongside the children they work with.

Staying Safe: During Forest and Nature School, the educator’s role is to make sure the group is physically safe and comfortable. The children need to dress well for the weather and stay warm and dry throughout the day. The educator also assesses the overall safety of the site and the risk management required for specific activities, which can change from day to day, in collaboration with the children they work with.

Creating Connections: The educator works to create community with thechildren, the parents, the place, and the community at large and works with the children to help them through conflicts and discussions that arise.Before and during the group’s visit to a site, the educator works with staff and students to assess the risk, ecological sensitivity, and play value of the site. Forest and Nature School educators choose rich natural places where the children can engage with loose parts and with natural features that engage the imagination and promote the children’s physical and social development. They also act as stewards of the place, conscious of the group’s interactions with it and their impact on it over time.

Educators Role- "The child-led nature of Forest School encourages children to make their own

decision about what activities they will engage in. The adults are very much in a

facilitating, supporting and observing role. A key function was for adults to

model skills and behaviours, rather than telling the children what to do, thus

allowing the children’s curiosity to draw them into an activity. Certain activities

such as tree climbing and tool use required specific adult ratios to be safe,

however, it was important that this adult presence was unobtrusive to the

children. A vital role for the teachers and Forest School Leaders was to step

back and observe individual children, this allowed one to assess children’s

learning dispositions, their level of understanding, where their natural interest lie

and how a child could be moved and challenged further. Time and space, within

the Forest School approach allowed effective observation to happen"