Interview - Jon Cree

Tell us a bit about the background to the Association?

A national association for Forest School has been a long time coming, as there has been demand for a while. We think there are around 10,000 practitioners who have taken part in Forest School training in the UK.

In 2010 we set up a steering group with the Institute for Outdoor Learning Special Interest Group for Forest School and the Forest School Trainers' Network to explore the need and feasibility of a new independent association/governing body. We put together a business plan in February this year, following a consultation last year supported by the Ernest Cook Trust and the Forestry Commission. We needed to find out what people wanted from a new national organisation for Forest School.

We're launching the association and the governing body on 7 July at Elvaston Castle Country Park in Derby at an event for more than 200 people where a chair, officers and directors/trustees will be elected. It costs £20 to be an associate member, but there are likely to be a range of different membership levels in the future.

What are the Association's aims?

It will be both a membership association for organisations and individuals and a national governing body for Forest School throughout the UK.

We aim to be the main point of contact for Forest School.There are so many different websites and private/local organisations, but we aim to be an independent voice for Forest School.

We will provide a co-ordinated way of signposting Forest School support for Forest School practitioners, training, continuing professional development and local networks.

We also expect to work with and support local Forest Schools that are cluster groups. The governing body will oversee Forest School qualifications and will act as a national voice, to try to raise the profile of Forest School from early years, through primary and secondary school. The association will also co-ordinate and disseminate research on Forest School.

What is the history behind Forest School?

Bridgwater College in Somerset ran the first qualification for what you might call modern-day Forest School, in 1997, based on the Danish model. This built on the educational philosophies and practice espoused by pioneers in the early years and nursery education from the Victorian era, for example, Margaret McMillan and Susan Isaacs, who had a strong outdoor learning ethos, and the more contemporary theorists such as Tina Bruce and Chris Athey.