Impacts of Long Term Forest School Programmes on Children’s Resilience, Confidence and Wellbeing
Study by Sarah Blackwell
Promoting children’s wellbeing, confidence and resilience should be the cornerstone of every educational policy, if we are to empower our learners to achieve anticipated developmental outcomes. Forest School programmes are child centred and are deliberately designed to promote the holistic development of the child. The aims of this study is to establish the impacts of long term forest school programmes on children’s resilience, confidence and wellbeing.
Using illuminative evaluation, this research study analysed articles, research studies and case studies on outdoor learning and then evaluated the impacts of long term Forest School programmes on children’s resilience, confidence and wellbeing. The study established that long term Forest Schools programmes had positive impacts on children’s resilience, confidence and wellbeing. The notable findings of Forest Schools programmes on children’s resilience were improvement on key resilient indicators, such as self efficacy, persistence, and problem solving skills. The notable impacts of long term Forest School programmes on children’s confidence were marked propensity to take risks, heightened levels of self belief, positive attitude, independence and increased tendency of taking initiative. In relation to children’s wellbeing, long term Forest Schools programmes were found to have positive impacts on children’s physical and mental health in addition to improving their social and cognitive competence. The study found that promoting wellbeing in children enhances their confidence and resilience.
