Children from 35 schools in Tewkesbury and surrounding areas were invited to a forest school fun day on 2 July in nine woodland locations.
Groups of 30 children per session took part in activities such as digging, colour catching (matching paint colour charts with their woodland discoveries), bug hunting, painting trees with mud, and collecting treasures.
Chris Dee, founder of the Forest School Learning Initiative, who helped run the event, said, 'The day was incredible. Two-thirds of the children had never taken part in a forest school before and teachers were surprised by how quickly the children took to it and how confident they became. During the sessions one child amazed her parents and staff when she spoke to her peers for the very first time.'
The Forest School Extravaganza was organised and funded by the Tewkesbury and District Partnership, a group of 36 schools set up 18 months ago to share good practice.
The group's chair Bronwen Mabey, head teacher at Bromsberrow School, said, 'The group felt that reception teachers don't get enough time to liaise with each other and observe practice, so came up with the idea of holding a forest school day for reception children.'
Ms Mabey contacted the Forest School Learning Initiative, who deliver fortnightly forest school sessions at the school.
Ms Dee said, 'We received brilliant feedback from the sessions. As a result of the day, most of the schools that took part and don't already offer forest school sessions are now looking to take it up.'
The partnership now hopes to make the Forest School Extravaganza an annual event.
