In 2012 the British government scrapped minimum requirements for outside ‘game playing field’ space in schools. Previously for primary schools, the stipulated ratio ranged from 25 square metres a child in schools with fewer than 200 pupils to 42 square metres per child in schools with greater numbers of children. The new requirement, compels schools to provide “suitable outdoor” space which may be tarmac or other hard surfaces, rather than grass playing fields. This space is for PE lessons and to allow “pupils to play outside safely”. The argument for removing these minima was that schools were struggling to provide the space (Hope, C, 14.08.2012). For some inner city children regular access to a school playing field is their sole opportunity to run and play on a natural surface; for others there is no grass, just relentless grey and usually unkind surfaces. In their film ‘Project Wild Thing’, The Wild Network demonstrates the miserable state of affairs for some children in the ‘No Ball Games’ segment
( https://vimeopro.com/greenlions/projectwildthingfilmclips/video/69484035 Select ‘Mason, Mile End’. Better yet, watch the whole film, it's excellent). Yet here is the government taking away the protection of that precious hint of nature from urban children. While it’s not a wood with all the extra potential that brings, a playing field has frosts on the grass, daisies, buttercups, dandelions, ladybirds, ants, snails, mud, puddles, dew. It is soft on the eye and kind underfoot; it is calming to the mind. This is ample to make a start.

The Government Forestry and Woodlands Policy Statement praise the work of the Forest Education Network, The Forest Schools Association and the Natural Connections South West for their work to bring learning about the natural environment in the natural environment to school children. (Defra, 2013, p16). This stands in contradiction to the squeeze on school and other urban green spaces.

Of course, I’m bound to say that forest schools held in woodlands, forests and in some cases, beaches bring the greatest benefits to our youngsters. Ideally this is what every child should have; time each week, preferably several hours, out in nature. However, I’m a realist, I know schools are strapped for cash. Employing someone to do forest school is often quite enough of a stretch for the head teacher to manage. So, we bring forest school to the schools as best we can. Branches from hedges and woods are taken onto the school playing field and used for everything from den building to weaving. New ways of moving and playing are discovered. Children use magnifying glasses and books to identify their finds. Although this lacks the bright freedom of running in a woodland, the stimulation and child led enquiry is still achieved. For some this will be the start of a lifelong journey into nature. However, without that green sward of grass, albeit marked up for football or athletics, the wonder is lost and there is a risk that all we are doing is science outside.

For some schools, the grass has gone or wasn’t ever there. These are the places whose children need forest school most. So how can we make this happen? Partnerships. Partnerships that can draw places in a locality together: schools working with parks and gardens, local playing fields, the grounds of an old people’s home or the nearest city farm. The benefits are two way; children not only gain all the pluses of forests school but they learn about another place and perhaps other people whom they may not have come across before. This is particularly powerful when forest school sets up in the garden of an old people’s home. Many homes encourage the residents to sit outside when the weather is kind enough and the more able often enjoy adapted gardening activities. The residents love having children about and the activities of forest school make for lively inter-generational conversation. The eyes of an eighty year old light up with as much excitement as those of a four year old on seeing a woodlouse uncurl or a snail laying eggs.

So if you work in a school with little or no green spaces and you are disheartened about the prospect of doing forest school on tarmac, let’s work something out together and enrich childhood.

C Hope, The Telegraph, August 2012 (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/keep-the-flame-alive/9475984/Keep-The-Flame-Alive-School-playing-fields-at-risk-as-ministers-relax-building-rules.html accessed 19.01.2016)
Defra, The Government Forestry and Woodlands Policy Statement, 2013, The Forestry Commission (https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/221023/pb13871-forestry-policy-statement.pdf )
Project Wild Thing (film), 2010, Green Lions http://www.thewildnetwork.com/film