The school will receive free forest school sessions with a forest school project officer for a whole year, three free places on a Level 3 forest school leadership training course and have their school grounds transformed with an outdoor classroom. Any school with an L postcode is eligible to apply. Liverpool Metro Mayor, Steve Rotheram, will carefully select the successful school from a number of finalists, to join the project at the start of 2019.

Forest school is a child-led, play-based ethos that offers children regular opportunities to succeed, improve self-esteem and develop as a person through hands-on learning in a natural setting. Fun games and activities such as climbing trees, natural art, den-building and lighting fires help to stimulate children’s creativity, build confidence and develop life skills, all while forming a positive relationship with nature.

The Lancashire Wildlife Trust has been running their forest school project in Liverpool since 2017. Supported by Players of People’s Postcode Lottery, the project aims to reconnect urban children and teachers with nature and to create a growing movement of primary schools across the region that are passionate about forest school and the benefits it offers to learners.

Senior forest school officer, Katie Dearden, said, “We want to see children being given the opportunity to experience forest school, for teachers to feel supported during their training and to leave a legacy by embedding forest school into the school’s ethos. Our pledge for the Year of the Environment has a total value of over £15,000 and the legacy the opportunity leaves behind is priceless.”

To date the Lancashire Wildlife Trust’s forest school project has worked with twenty-two schools and two nurseries, trained sixty-eight teachers to be Level 3 forest school leaders and installed numerous outdoor learning facilities. They’ve engaged over 2500 children with the project across the North West so far and hope to reach thousands more in the future.

The Year of the Environment will be a year of green action across the Liverpool City Region, giving people from all backgrounds the opportunity to be involved in projects that improve the natural world. The aim is to make the Liverpool City Region one of the greenest and best places in the country to live, work and flourish, while also leaving a better environment for future generations to inherit.

To find out more about Liverpool City Region’s Year of the Environment, visit http://www.natureconnected.org/yoe2019/.

To find out more about the Lancashire Wildlife Trust’s Forest School Project, supported by Players of People’s Postcode Lottery, and to find out how to apply on behalf of your school contact mtoal@lancswt.org.uk or visit https://www.lancswt.org.uk/forest-schools-liverpool.