Forest Arts in Schools

For years, Tanio has been active in schools across South Wales, delivering our Forest Arts programmes. Thanks to the generous support of funders like BCBC, BAVO, WWF and more, we have worked with hundreds of children in dozens of schools. We get children outside into school green spaces, local parks, or nature reserves, and guide them through Forest School activities with an artistic twist!

We have developed two Forest Arts curriculums with two important focuses: Spring Forward aims to help children grow in emotional literacy, while Winter Warmer addresses climate change and the rise of eco-anxiety in children and young people.

Spring Forward was developed during the COVID-19 pandemic to help grow wellbeing in children, and to address the complex emotions that arose from the crisis. Children who participate in Spring Forward are nurtured over 12 sessions to better understand their own feelings, as well as the feelings of others.     

Across all of our delivery, we have seen 100% of participants improve in at least one of the seven areas of wellbeing that the curriculum addresses: teamwork, resilience, independence, empathy, creativity, nature connectivity, and emotional literacy.

Winter Warmer was sparked from the success of Spring Forward, as we realised that one of the primary emotions that many children and young people are facing these days is eco-anxiety. The feelings of worry and dread that many people feel around climate change are compounded for younger generations, who feel less hopeful about growing up and more helpless in what they can do to affect positive change. Winter Warmer focuses on ways that we can all make a difference, while emphasising that climate change is not to be blamed on younger generations. ‘The problems we’re facing are not your fault!’ Through Winter Warmer, children learn to be champions of the planet, while realistically but conscientiously discussing what climate change means for all of us.

Both Spring Forward and Winter Warmer are available for delivery in your school by our Level 3 Forest School certified facilitators! Please get in touch via the form below to find out more. Alternatively, both curriculums are also available for purchase as Toolkits, with how-to instructions for all activities and guidance on how the curriculums can be implemented with the new Welsh Curriculum.

We also offer bespoke Forest Arts sessions – please just ask us!

Please note, for safety reasons and to ensure a meaningful experience for participants, our Forest Arts sessions are for groups of 15 pupils or fewer. We can provide practical solutions to work with schools who want to engage more students.