This week, the Arc School Napton classes designed and decorated their own totem poles which have now been planted at the local farm where the students go for their Forest School sessions.

The school offers a broad and creative curriculum designed to meet the needs of the individual, whilst ensuring that opportunities are provided for children to achieve the best possible educational outcomes and lay the foundations to future educational success.

Children in the Forest School sessions have to work and learn together with their peers both independently and collaboratively.  They also have to learn to manage themselves in what is often a new and unpredictable environment.  Within this we have seen the children develop the skills to play, turn take, share, collaborate and plan, largely independent of the focused adult support they may previously have needed. 

The children – and adults supporting them - face a range of complex problems and tasks, which they have to solve.  Because they need to learn to assess risks (and decide if these risks are ok for them to take) we have seen an increase in their problem solving skills, as opposed to reliance on an adult to problem solve for them.

The biggest challenge for the children – and often the most exciting – is the chance to learn new skills and achieve things they may previously have thought they couldn’t. They then bring this confidence and excitement back into school, which positively impacts on every aspect of their life and learning journey.

These totem poles look fantastic, well done to everyone!