St. Mark's Pre-School
Forest school sessions are held on a Tuesday
Welcome to
St Mark's Pre-School
St Mark's Pre-School is a privately run setting set within the village of Normandy Surrey and situated close to Wyke Primary School.
Our Pre-School provides childcare for 30 children aged from 2 years to starting school age.
Our sessions run four mornings per week, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 9:00am - 12:00pm, or extended sessions until 2.45pm.
We provide Forest School Sessions
Our setting is influenced by the Forest School principles.
Principle 1: Forest School is a long-term process of frequent and regular sessions in a woodland or natural environment, rather than a one-off visit. Planning, adaptation, observations and reviewing are integral elements of Forest School.
Principle 2: Forest School takes place in a woodland or natural wooded environment to support the development of a relationship between the learner and the natural world.
Principle 3: Forest School aims to promote the holistic development of all those involved, fostering resilient, confident, independent and creative learners
Principle 4: Forest School offers learners the opportunity to take supported risks appropriate to the environment and to themselves.
5. Forest School is run by qualified Forest School practitioners who continuously maintain and develop their professional practice.
6. Forest School uses a range of learner-centred processes to create a community for development and learning
The philosophy of Forest School is to encourage and inspire individuals of any age through positive outdoor experiences. It originates from a concept established in Denmark in the 1980s. Today Forest School principles are beginning to influence the environment and learning style adopted in modern nurseries and has demonstrated that through outdoor play, children have the opportunity to learn about the natural environment. It is engaging with the surrounding area and the ethos about taking the reflective child led approach that really appeals to us.
We are registered as a day care provision with OFSTED. View report here.
“We need the tonic of wildness... We can never have enough of nature.”
Henry David Thoreau
The Forest School approach to learning can be summarised as one which puts the
child at the center of their own learning. It is the child who makes the decisions about which activities to participate in, how to approach and solve problems, what they need to reflect on, what their strengths are and what they want to learn next. All of this is achieved in our richest of classrooms – the outdoors.
Children are given room to have real life experiences. They are encouraged to think ‘outside of the box’; make mistakes; direct their own learning and take risks. All of these factors acuminate in producing children who have increased confidence levels, developed independence, raised self-esteem, great communication skills, resilience and high levels of motivation.
Education should be all about experiences because that is when learning is optimised. Benjamin Franklin could not have phrased it better when he said: “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn”.
