Great Forest School Leaders
Academic qualifications for Forest School leaders (e.g., Level 3), while intended to ensure quality and consistency, don’t necessarily guarantee that someone will be a great Forest School leader.
The Scandinavian Forest School approach, where arguably modern-day Forest School originated, does not require formal qualifications for Forest School leaders.
In the 1990’s Forest School started to be adopted into UK education, initially for early years education i.e., in nurseries and pre-schools for ages up to 5 years. Straight away a qualification was created; the UK loves a qualification - there is a general belief that a qualification demonstrates competence. But does it really?
These qualifications have evolved and become seemingly more academic and here’s why academic credentials alone may fall short:
1. Passion and Connection with Nature
The Heart of a Great Forest School Leader: A genuine love for nature and enthusiasm for outdoor learning are key qualities of an inspiring Forest School leader.
Issue with Qualifications: Academic courses can teach theory, but they can’t instill a deep personal connection with nature or the intrinsic joy of sharing that connection with others. Passion often drives the creativity and spontaneity that make Forest School special.
2. Practical Experience Matters
The Heart of a Great Forest School Leader: A Forest School leader must be adaptable, confident in outdoor settings, and skilled at handling diverse challenges in nature.
Issue with Qualifications: Academic qualifications often focus on theoretical knowledge, risk assessments, and lesson planning, but hands-on experience in real-world scenarios is what truly develops practical skills like managing group dynamics or dealing with unpredictable weather.
3. Emotional Intelligence Is Key
The Heart of a Great Forest School Leader: Empathy, patience, and the ability to build trust and rapport with children are critical traits.
Issue with Qualifications: These soft skills are difficult to teach academically. A leader’s ability to read emotions, respond intuitively to children’s needs, and create a safe, nurturing environment often comes from life experience, with a natural empathy and patience, rather than formal training.
4. Academic Focus Can Overshadow the Child-Led Ethos
The Heart of a Great Forest School Leader: Forest School leaders must embrace and promote child-led, exploratory learning.
Issue with Qualifications: Academic systems often emphasize structured lesson plans, measurable outcomes, and adult-led frameworks. Leaders trained in such systems may unintentionally prioritize structure over the open-ended, process-focused approach that defines Forest School.
5. Not All Skills Are Measurable
The Heart of a Great Forest School Leader: Intangible qualities like creativity, intuition, and the ability to foster a sense of wonder are central to leading an engaging Forest School.
Issue with Qualifications: Academic assessments often fail to capture these unquantifiable traits, leading to a narrow view of what makes someone "qualified" to lead.
6. Risk-Taking and Adaptability Can Be Stifled
The Heart of a Great Forest School Leader: Encouraging managed risk and responding dynamically to challenges are fundamental aspects of Forest School.
Issue with Qualifications: Overemphasis on academic knowledge can make leaders overly cautious or reliant on predefined procedures, reducing their ability to adapt spontaneously to situations or allow children to take calculated risks.
7. Academic Systems May Attract the Wrong Motivations
The Heart of a Great Forest School Leader: A Forest School leader should be driven by a genuine desire to nurture children and foster a love for nature.
Issue with Qualifications: Some people may pursue academic credentials as a career move rather than out of a deep commitment to the Forest School ethos. Academic systems can sometimes prioritize credentials over true passion or alignment with the philosophy. Conversely, potentially great Forest School Leaders may avoid Forest School due to the academic qualification.
8. Excludes Experienced but Uncredentialed Leaders
The Heart of a Great Forest School Leader: Many exceptional leaders come from diverse backgrounds—parents, community members, or practitioners with years of outdoor experience and experience working with children.
Issue with Qualifications: Requiring academic credentials can exclude these individuals, even though they may have the practical skills and personal qualities that align more closely with the Forest School ethos than someone with formal qualifications but less experience.
9. Academic Training Doesn’t Teach Every Essential Skill
The Heart of a Great Forest School Leader: Forest School leaders need diverse skills, from fire-lighting and tool use to conflict resolution and fostering inclusivity.
Issue with Qualifications: Many training programs focus heavily on evidence collation against formalised qualification standards such as theoretical knowledge and completion of pre-determined tasks, often grouped under the heading “portfolio” - leaving gaps in practical outdoor skills and relational abilities.
10. True Leadership Develops Over Time
The Heart of a Great Forest School Leader: The ability to lead a Forest School comes from a combination of reflection, experience, and a willingness to grow alongside the children.
Issue with Qualifications: A certificate at the end of a course doesn’t mean someone is fully prepared to embody the values of Forest School. Great leadership requires ongoing learning and personal development.
11. Risk of Over-Professionalization
The Heart of a Great Forest School Leader: Forest School should be rooted in a grassroots, community-driven ethos that values inclusivity and simplicity.
Issue with Qualifications: Academic systems can contribute to over-professionalization, creating unnecessary barriers to entry and potentially turning Forest School into a formalized, hierarchical system, which contradicts its foundational principles.
Balancing Academic Qualifications with the Forest School Ethos
While academic qualifications can provide a foundation of knowledge and ensure basic safety standards, they should not overshadow the core traits of a great Forest School leader: passion, adaptability, emotional intelligence, and a commitment to child-led, nature-based learning. Combining practical experience, mentorship, and reflective practice with formal training would better align qualifications with the true spirit of Forest School.
Forest School training and courses are a fast track way of learning, where knowledge is gained quickly without the timescales of learning through experience. It doesn’t mean that experience is not a good as training. Experience may be better and training can fill in gaps.
Qualifications offer the result of measuring a set of criteria (against qualification standards), but do they really capture all the requirements that determines a great Forest School leader. Of course not! To be a great Forest School leader you need much more than a qualification.
