Level 2 Assistant in Forest Schools
Join thousands who've already started their Forest School journey
Level 2 · Assistant
Step into the work properly.
The accredited qualification for teaching assistants, early years practitioners, teachers and outdoor educators who are already out there with children, and want the confidence, the language and the qualification to do it well.
Level 2 qualifies you to assist in the leadership of Forest Schools sessions, alongside a qualified Leader. It does not qualify you to run a programme on your own. That is Level 3, and we are careful about the difference because employers, insurers and inspectors are careful about it too. Anyone telling you a Level 2 can lead independently is doing you no favours.
What the qualification is for
The person beside the Leader matters enormously.
A Forest Schools session does not run on one person. It runs on a Leader who holds the programme and an Assistant who holds the room: watching the child at the edge of the group, keeping the fire safe, noticing the one who has gone quiet.
Level 2 is the qualification for that work. It is the natural step on from Level 1, and the foundation for Level 3 if you decide to go there.
Leadership does not require dominance. It requires steadiness.
What you will learn
Confidence you can actually use on Monday.
Supporting a session safely
How to prepare and check a site, set up, support the experiences the Leader has planned, and work safely with tools and fire alongside a group.
Reading the woodland
Woodland awareness, seasonal change and caring for your site over years rather than terms, so the place is still good in five years' time.
Reading the group
Risk benefit, and how appropriate challenge helps a child grow. When to step in, when to wait, and how to notice the child who is not asking for anything.
However you take it, the practical work is done outdoors and the written work is finished at your own pace afterwards, with tutor support until you are done. Your joining pack confirms the times for your course, as they differ between our UK venues and our international ones.
Three ways to take it
The course is the same. The support is what changes.
Every Archimedes course runs online, and that is deliberate. It means you can start now, work at your own pace, and build your evidence in your own setting rather than ours. 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 standing next to you.
The full course, with your tutor reachable by email, WhatsApp or a video call whenever you need them, a trainer support session each week you can join, and portfolio support until you finish. Your practical evidence is built in your own setting, outdoors, not at a desk. Start whenever you are ready.
Enrol now, start todayThe self guided online course in full, and then two days with a trainer beside you at your chosen venue. You start the course as soon as you enrol and train alongside the Level 3 cohort for those two days. Available at our UK venues and internationally. Every venue, country and date is listed below.
The self guided online course in full, and a full week with a trainer. Where a five day Level 3 is running, Level 2 runs across the whole week alongside it. Your portfolio is the same online portfolio as every other route, completed in your own time. Accommodation is available at some venues. Every venue, country and date is listed below.
In person, Level 2 always runs alongside a Level 3 cohort, over two days or over five, depending on which Level 3 is running that week. That holds in the UK and internationally, without exception. It is not taught as a course of its own, and we think that is a strength: you spend the week beside people training to lead. Self guided is the one route that stands alone, and it is always open. There is no prerequisite either way. You do not need Level 1 to take Level 2, though many people find the day helps.
Boundaries are not restrictive when they are calmly held. They are liberating.
This is the level where that stops being a nice sentence and becomes something you can do. Consistency, not rigidity. A limit that is explained, held, and repaired afterwards, so the relationship survives it.Where it leads
Level 3, if and when you want it.
Level 3 is the qualification for Forest School Leaders internationally, recognised by Ofsted and the Department for Education, and it is what qualifies you to plan and run long term programmes of your own. It runs the same week as Level 2 at most of our venues, so nothing is wasted if you decide to carry on.
Booking
Find a date that suits you.
Every upcoming Level 2, 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 2 datesOr start online today, £797
