One of the things that I really value about my Forest school training is the confidence it has given me when working with children and tools.

In the woods we often have a potato peeler as our first tool. They are cheap and whilst they can cause cuts on fingers it is quite hard to misuse them in a way that could seriously harm a child or adult. By the time I introduce tools into a Forest School programme I generally know the children well enough that I know how they will react, but I like being able to introduce tools gradually and get a feel for the children’s responses. But peelers are a staging post towards using real tools like knives and bow-saws.

To take a stick, peeling away some of the bark, maybe shaping it slightly and for extra sensory pleasure, sanding it smooth. This is mastery over your environment. Bob Hughes in his taxonomy of play types explores the different ways children play. Mastery play is defined as “Control of the physical and affective ingredients of the environments.” The effect on a child of being able to control their environment and change part of it is the effect of being able to demonstrate competence and feel confident. Mastery play is often seen as a gross motor activity, building dens, damming streams, but there is another side to it, the physical, transformative extension of exploratory play. Exploring something develops into changing it, learning skills along the way. It is physical but it has an emotional resonance too as it allows children to connect with the elements they are playing with, to develop pride in their achievements.

But what is a stick once it has been whittled? I was working with a group of children over a whole weekend, the youngest of whom was about 7 and the oldest in his mid teens. I introduced them to whittling and we explored the possibilities. Over the next couple of days they produced wands, weapons, spoons, pencils and sculptures. Now this is where there is an element of risk for me as a Forest School practitioner. Not in the risk of harm, this, through common sense, training and understanding can be minimised, but the very real risk of losing someone’s stick. I had just finished tidying up and loading the car to go home. A girl ran over and asked me where her stick was. Once someone has whittled or carved a stick and taken the time to work with it they will know it anywhere, so we had to find HER stick before she could go home and there were a lot of sticks to sort through.

What always impresses me is the perseverance and patience a child will show when given a tool and a real task. Even the younger children I work with can spend more than half an hour focussed and concentrating on their tasks, with a potato peeler and stick. I have noticed children take that time and space to focus on the task, reaching a state of flow and immersion. That is why Forest School programmes focus on achievable tasks. Children have the opportunity to develop their skills before moving on to acquire the next one and build on their confidence. Children get few opportunities in their lives to make permanent changes of the sort you can only make with a tool. Just to sit, with a piece of wood and a knife, to feel the effects and see the change that they are creating.

Hughes. B. A Playworker’s Taxonomy of Play Types, 1996 London: PLAYLINK, UK

Author: Lily Horseman