Nursery World - Forest schools join forces for new national body

A membership organisation is to be set up for forest schools following a consultation carried out by the Institute for Outdoor Learning (IOL) Special Interest Group for Forest Schools and supported by the Ernest Cook Trust.

The Forest School National Governing Body, which will be launched in the early part of 2012, aims to provide a quality assurance scheme for forest schools as well as a national database of the settings and websites where practitioners and training providers can access and share resources. It eventually aims to develop new level 3 and 4 qualifications for forest school practitioners.

Erica Wellings, development officer for the governing body, which is being funded by the IOL and the Ernest Cook Trust, said, 'For part of the consultation we sent out a questionnaire last year to forest school providers and practitioners, and 85 per cent said that there should be a governing and/or representative body.

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