Forest Quest

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Forest Quest

Providing outdoor adventure through Forest School and Bushcraft courses

13/09/2026

Lots of happy faces returned to the forest today for the first of our Autumn series. It was so lovely to have our groups back together once again and the weather was kind despite the forecast!

The Woodland Adventurers collected brambles today to make their own blackberry cordial. This was tested of course, with most people enjoying it! The rest has gone home to share with the rest of the family. Whilst their cordial was cooling, each child completed a five senses Autumn trail with great care and expertise. A fabulous start back in the forest.

The Forest School Group started to create their own special shelters to add to the 'shelter zone', while the Bushcraft Group worked on repairing and restoring the Anglo-saxon house which, after 5 years of hard use, is looking a bit tired!

21/08/2026

The weather stayed kind for our last Forest Friday holiday session. On this occasion, the children were split into three different age groups.

The youngest children had a forest creature themed session with a number of games involving camouflage, water sprays and a spider trail. They made a giant ladybird or bumblebee, a clay hedgehog (after learning how to use secateurs) and a bee themed bug hotel to hang in their gardens. They all worked incredibly well using the equipment safely and sensibly. Several are on our Saturday waiting list, so hopefully they won’t have too much longer to wait to come back again.

The middle group were excited to use the hidden 'Bushcraft Zone' as their base for the day, even designing their own shelter for it. They played different pine cone games including hiding them (like squirrels) and later trying to retrieve them (almost as well as squirrels!). They also hunted for letter symbols around the wood to try to work out words.

The oldest group also played the letter symbols game, but with the added complication of communicating in pairs over radios to find them. Following the Government’s safety alert on fire, they then had a new experience: cooking lunch for everyone on camp stoves and what a fantastic job they did! Finally, they went in search of elderberries which they cooked and turned into a cordial to take home.

And that’s it for another Forest Quest summer. Thank you to all the families who have supported us and to all the children who have made our experiences so much fun. Enjoy the rest of your summer holidays!

15/08/2026

It was a scorcher yesterday, reaching 30 degrees under the trees. The children did exceptionally well to cope with the heat, to focus and to join in with all the activities. The younger group had a trip through time making natural paints for stone age paintings, Roman laurel wreaths and Egyptian hieroglyphic clay slabs. There was also a woolly mammoth hunting game, Victorian parlour games and a rather tricky trail decoding a hidden message. Lunch was cooked to perfection as always by the older group and adventuring time was enjoyed by all. It is lovely to see children making new friends with children from different schools and reigniting friendships from last summer too! The older group learnt how to use a knife safely and made cool spears with them. They also did their best to complete 6 challenges around the wood including a tricky water transport task, pine cone throwing, hammock setting, tree identification and a scavenger hunt. Great fun all round.

08/08/2026

Yesterday on our Forest School holiday special, the younger group were set 10 different challenges to complete throughout the day. These involved lots of different skills and working independently, in pairs and in teams. Did they manage to succeed? Of course they did! Every single one. Challenges included a blindfold trail, an egg drop, hammering, balancing, the fox tail game, the assault course and carrying lots of water! The egg drop was particularly popular with several children managing to protect their egg despite throwing it as hard as they could from the top of the tree platform. In between our challenges there was lots of time for adventuring and making new friends as always.
The older group played a hectic 'switch the lights' game in the wide wood and then worked together to light the fire and cook lunch for everyone. Then they had a rescue challenge. First they learnt how to make a stretcher, how to apply bandages and how to communicate over the radios, then they had to find an 'injured' person in the wood, administer first aid, and transport them to safety on their stretchers. Great team work, and great fun, not sure if the casualties were better for the experience though!

31/07/2026

We enjoyed another lovely Forest School Holiday Special today; the focus for the younger group was survival in the forest. The children played a variety of games learning how to be stealthy, how to be camouflaged and how to make signals so that they could be found. Two fabulous natural shelters were made and tested and fires were lit to toast our own marshmallows. All the children managed to make sparks and light their cotton wool and three groups created tiny fires successfully. We had fun pretending that we had been injured and practising our bandaging skills and there was still time for adventuring, tree climbing and creating in the mud kitchen!
The older group processed their own clay and made pinch pots which were then baked in a fabulous fire. They played a couple of games and melted wax to make candles in their pots, and there was plenty of time for them to explore too. Great work everyone.

26/07/2026

Fire was the focus for today's Forest School Grown Ups. Next session is on 23rd August if you want to come along.

25/07/2026

Our forest Friday holiday sessions got off to a great start yesterday with a beautiful day, lots of activities and a brilliantly cooked lunch! Kath’s group had a day of woodland games: pine cone throwing, forest hurdles, egg and spoon assault course and worm (sack) wriggling, alongside lots of adventuring time. They also used palm drills to make their own wood cookie medals and hammers and peelers to create some beautiful flags as mementos of their day in the forest. The older group had a go at archery and fire lighting, cooked lunch for everyone, then faced the plank challenge before a relaxing craft session making stone age arrowhead pendants. A lovely first Summer Holiday session.

12/07/2026

It was all fun and games for our last session this term. The Woodland Adventurers showed great sportsmanship, effort and skill to complete a throwing challenge, a steeplechase and a scavenger hunt before creating their own javelins and seeing how far they could fly. (Turns out to be quite a long way!) We ended with water pistols which helped keep us cool on a very warm day.

The older groups joined together for their traditional end-of-series widegame involving setting up bases around the wood, searching for each other's and then trying to capture their flags. Some great tactics and awesome cunning from everyone.

We are looking forward to seeing many of the children at our summer events and the rest on our return to Saturday sessions in September. Have a wonderful summer break.

04/07/2026

The Woodland Adventurers were kept busy today starting with a cone collecting race (the cones were then used to restock the bug house). They then had a try at drawing symmetrical leaf pictures and planted their own rabbit field with lots of grass (mustard and cress) which will hopefully grow this week! Great focus and effort from all to produce some lovely items.
Some of children in the older groups focussed on completing their dorodangos - such patience! While others made paracord bracelets, again with great care and patience. Great results of both.

29/06/2026

Another great Forest School for Grown ups session in the wood yesterday. Inspired by the 10,000 year old Star Carr artefacts housed in The Yorkshire Museum and, in particular the engraved shale pendant, the group made their own pendants using their artistic flair and lime bast cordage. A lovely mindful morning in the tranquility of the wood and great results. Spaces available on the next one on 26 July.

Address

Tollerton

Telephone

+447519340220

Website

http://www.forestquest.co.uk/

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