Level 1 Foundation in Forest Schools
Join thousands who've already started their Forest School journey
Level 1 · Foundation
The day you start noticing differently.
For parents, carers, teaching assistants and anyone who spends their days with children. No experience needed, and no qualification before it. Take it online at your own pace, or add a day outdoors with a trainer.
Level 1 is complete in itself. It is not a gateway you have to pass through, and you are not expected to go further. This is a day about how you are with children, not about what you are licensed to do.
Who it is really for
Most people come for the children they already have.
Level 1 is for parents and carers as much as for practitioners. Most people arrive wanting to understand the children already in their life a little better, and that is exactly what the day is for.
You will come away noticing things you had not noticed before. What a child is actually telling you. When to step in and when to stand back. And how much confidence grows in a child who is trusted with something sharp, or who is working out how to handle themselves outdoors for the first time.
Awakening is not a gateway. It is a restoration.
What the day gives you
Doing, not listening.
A day outdoors, doing
Simple woodland skills and a first look at tools, learned by doing rather than watching slides. No prior knowledge assumed, and nobody is put on the spot.
A different way of watching
How to read what a child is doing, when to step in, and how much they grow when you do not. This is the part people tell us about afterwards.
Something to take home
Things you can do with your own children on Saturday, and a different way of being with them. If you have taken the accredited option, your certificate follows your portfolio.
The day runs outdoors, in whatever the weather is doing. Bring yourself and something warm. Every course day runs from 9.30am to 3.30pm, at every venue in the UK and internationally. The one exception is our Seoul and Pattaya courses in October 2026, which keep their 8am start.
Three ways to take it
The course is the same. The support is what changes.
Level 1 is an online course on every route, and that is deliberate. It means you can start now and work at your own pace, wherever you are. What changes between these routes is how much of us you get with it. Email, WhatsApp, video calls and a trainer support session each week on all of them. On two of them, a trainer with you outdoors for the day.
The Open Awards certificate, and how to get it. Most people take the day for what it does for them. If you want the qualification as well, choose the accredited option when you book, or add it afterwards. You build a portfolio in your own setting and Open Awards issue the Level 1 certificate.
Start whenever you like and work at your own pace, with a trainer support session each week you can join and our learner support team reachable until you finish. At £247 you get the course. At £297 you submit a portfolio and receive the Open Awards Level 1 certificate.
Enrol now, start todayThe self guided online course in full, and then a day outdoors with a trainer, taken as the first day of a training week at one of our venues. You join the Level 2 and Level 3 learners for that day, so you spend the day alongside people training to assist and to lead. We hold six Level 1 places per course. The £297 option adds the portfolio and the Open Awards certificate. Every venue and date is listed below.
The self guided online course in full, and then a full day outdoors taught by our master trainers. This is the foundation day, taught by our master trainers. It is attendance only and carries no qualification. Every country and date is listed below.
If you are not sure which you want, take the day. You can add the accredited route afterwards, and plenty of people decide once they have seen what the day is actually like. Level 1 is open from 14 years old, so sixth formers, college students and young people thinking about working with children are welcome alongside staff. A parent or guardian completes the registration form for anyone under 18.
You do not have to change your life to change how you do it.
For some people Level 1 is the first step towards working outdoors, and they take the accredited route and build the portfolio. For most, it is simply the day they started paying attention differently to the children in front of them, and no certificate was ever the point. Both are a good enough reason to come.If you do want to go further
Level 2 and Level 3 run the same week, in the same place.
You are under no obligation to take them, and plenty of people never do. But if the day opens something up, you will not have to start again somewhere else. Level 2 qualifies you to assist a Forest Schools Leader. Level 3 qualifies you to lead your own programme.
Booking
Find a date that suits you.
Every upcoming Level 1, self guided, in the UK and internationally, in one place. If you cannot see one near you, write and tell us where you are.
See all Level 1 datesOr start online today, from £247
