Adults need Forest School too! 🌿

We spend a lot of time thinking about what children need. More time outdoors. More opportunities to explore. Less screen time. More freedom to get muddy, climb, build, notice, wonder and play. And then we send them to Forest School.

But here’s a question worth asking:

What about us?

Because perhaps adults need Forest School just as much as children do.

We’ve forgotten how to be outside

For many adults, being outdoors has become something we do between other things.

We walk somewhere while listening to a podcast. We go for a run while tracking our heart rate. We take the children to the park while answering emails. We go on holiday and spend half the time taking photographs of the experience.

Even when we are surrounded by nature, our minds can still be somewhere else. Forest School invites us to do something increasingly radical:

Stop. Notice. Be curious.

What does that leaf feel like?

Can you hear a bird without seeing it?

Where is the wind coming from?

What happens when you sit quietly under a tree for five minutes?

These are simple questions, but they can bring us back into the present moment.

Adults need permission to play too

One of the most beautiful things about watching children outdoors is the way they approach the world.

A stick isn't just a stick. It's a wand, a fishing rod, a bridge, a dinosaur, a building material or simply an interesting stick. A puddle isn't an inconvenience. It's something to jump in. Children don't need nature to have a purpose. They don't need to be productive in order to justify being outside. Adults have rather forgotten this. We are conditioned to make everything useful. Exercise must count. Hobbies need to become skills. Time needs to be productive. Forest School gives us permission to play without needing a reason. And perhaps that is not frivolous at all. Perhaps play is one of the things we need most.

Nature doesn't care about your job title

Outside, our usual identities become a little less important. You might be a teacher, a parent, a CEO, a

doctor, an administrator or someone who is simply trying to get through the week. But a tree doesn't care.

Neither does a beetle. The birds aren't impressed by your inbox. The natural world offers a wonderfully non-judgemental space where we can simply exist. There is something deeply grounding about this. We become observers rather than managers. We become participants rather than consumers. And sometimes, that shift is exactly what a tired adult needs.

Forest School can challenge our need to control

Adult life is full of schedules, routines, targets and expectations. We like to know what is going to happen next. But nature doesn't work like that. The weather changes.A bird appears and disappears.A fallen branch becomes a home for insects.The tide comes in.A seed grows at its own pace. Forest School encourages us to work with the environment rather than trying to control it. For adults, this can be surprisingly powerful. We practise flexibility. We learn to tolerate uncertainty. We notice that not everything needs to be fixed, optimised or rushed. Sometimes the best thing we can do is simply pay attention to what is happening.

It can reconnect us with our bodies

Modern life can be remarkably disconnected from our physical selves. We sit. We type. We drive. We scroll. Forest School gets us moving in different ways. We walk over uneven ground. We crouch down. We climb. We carry. We balance. We feel the texture of bark and soil. We notice heat, humidity, wind and rain.

It is movement without the pressure of calling it exercise. And there is something wonderful about rediscovering the body as a source of information rather than simply something we have to manage.

And perhaps most importantly, adults need nature for ourselves

We often talk about taking children into nature because it is "good for them." But nature isn't just an educational tool. It isn't simply a classroom without walls. It isn't somewhere we take children so that they can develop resilience, confidence and curiosity.

We need those things too.

We need places where we can breathe. We need experiences that remind us that we are part of something bigger than our to-do lists. We need moments of wonder. We need dirt under our fingernails occasionally. We need to look up from our phones and remember that the world is still happening around us.

So what would adult Forest School look like?

It might be learning the names of the trees in your neighbourhood.

It might be sitting quietly beside a pond and seeing what appears.

It might be making something from natural materials.

It might be walking without headphones.

It might be learning to light a fire, identify a bird, follow animal tracks or simply notice ten different shades of green.

Or it might be doing absolutely nothing for ten minutes except sitting beneath a tree.

There is no test.

No learning objective.

No gold star.

Just curiosity.

Perhaps we should stop asking, "What will the children learn?"

And start asking:

"What might we rediscover ourselves?"

Because Forest School isn't only about creating confident, curious, resilient children. It can create space for confident, curious, resilient adults too. And maybe the adults who spend time reconnecting with nature become better able to offer that connection to the children in their lives. Not because we have all the answers. But because we remember what it feels like to wonder.

To play.

To get muddy.

To slow down.

To notice.

To be outside simply because it feels good to be there.

Maybe adults don't need Forest School because we have something left to learn.

Maybe we need it because we have something important to remember. 🌱