Cambium Sustainable - Associate Trainer story - Becks at Campfire Cymru

How did you get into Forest School?

I grew up in London, but loved visiting my Grandparents who lived next door to a wood. My grandma would go walking there every day with a basket to collect kindling. She pointed out trees, plants and animal tracks to me, so I think the forest was in my heart from an early age. As a young person, I was a member of Woodcraft Folk, an educational charity with strong environmental and social justice ideals. I loved camping and learnt about knots and campcraft from their wonderful youth leaders. Later I became a teacher and lived in a West London terrace with my family, where I planted a weeping birch tree in my garden (still my favourite tree). But the call to spend more time outdoors was strong and we moved to rural North Wales. I visited Llyn Brenig and attended a Forest Fun session for families, run by the Forestry Commission, (now Natural Resources Wales in Wales). I thought… I could do this. I trained the following year, left teaching and started up a social enterprise, providing Forest School programmes, storytelling & craft days and environmental education. That was 10 years ago - my company’s birthday is 12th December 2012.

What led you into Forest School training and why?

For the last 7 years, Campfire Cymru has run Forest Families, Forest School sessions for families with disabilities in Wrexham. We’ve cried and laughed alongside some incredible families and seen children grow up and adults develop through our regular forest school sessions. In 2018, I bumped into Anney (Cambium Sustainable Founder) from Cambium at an outdoor event. I had been considering doing some therapy based training to complement the work I was already doing supporting families. Then in 2019, some of the parents and carers from Forest Families expressed an interest in becoming more involved in delivering at the sessions we were running and I thought, maybe I could train them.

What has inspired/amazed you whilst Forest School training?

I’ve always been interested in people and somehow in Forest School training. People get so immersed in the experience that they often discover things about themselves, especially that they are more skilled than they thought! I find this fascinating and love it when someone realises they can make a mallet, light a fire, tie a knot, understand a theory, or whatever it is that has happened to make their eyes light up. I love the stories learners bring back to the training about what they have been doing in their own sessions. For this reason, I prefer to run training that is spread over several weeks, so that learners can take what they have learned each week and put it into practice immediately. I’m still amazed by the fact that I am always learning and there is always something new, whether it’s discovering new theories and research about how children play and learn outdoors or developing my own practical and delivery skills, as a practitioner and a trainer. 

What barriers have you overcome during Forest School training?

I ran my first Level 3 training course in the middle of the pandemic, delayed by 6 months of course, entirely outdoors in October-November. I think my reflection from Day 3 probably covers the exhaustion of setting up the first course! 

Day 3

“I am so tired. Broken. And this is the day after the training! I couldn’t have written this last night and even now my eyelids are drooping! Getting this week off the ground has been a colossal effort. The weeks of preparation; re-writing risk assessments due to venue change; adapting the lesson plans to incorporate a blended student and to enable me to run it outdoors entirely; updating my knowledge of various topics including play theories and sustainable management of natural resources; setting up a new venue; liaising with students, their funders, my funders; covering Forest School sessions while the training takes place; organising my kit; updating kit; arranging discounts with shops.”

What are your hopes for the future of Forest School as a trainer?

Since that first course, I’ve delivered the level 3 Forest School Practitioner enough times that I can run it without looking at the plan every 5 minutes and I do really enjoy it every time. I’ve also added different courses; I’ve been fortunate enough to get funding to run Outdoor Play Practitioner Level 2 several times, which is a lot of fun to deliver. And I’ve loved every minute of delivering Level 1 Outdoor Learning with some of the young people who came through our Forest Families sessions. I have two fantastic colleagues who are working with Cambium so they can support the assessment and observation of our learners. My hopes for the future as a trainer are to be able to keep running high quality training in North Wales, sharing the Forest School ethos widely so that lots more children get the opportunities they need for outdoor play in the woods.