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A week in the life of Oak Forest School


Melv Mills Outdoor Manager at Oak Forest School


This article was produced in advance of COVID–19.


A week in the life of our outdoor manager, starting at 7am and finishing with planning and preparation late into each evening are long hours “but it’s worth every minute” says Melv Mills, especially when you get feedback such as “this has been the best day of my life” and “thank you for inspiring a generation”.


Monday


It’s a bright morning and time to load up the truck with essential items for the day ahead working with year 4 children.


It’s a curriculum linked outdoor activity looking at life in the middle ages. First jobs are erecting an outdoor shelter, building a fire and setting up equipment. The group are using knives and working around fires.


Tuesday


It’s off to the wood erecting our teaching parachute preparing for our group to arrive.


Today it’s a group of year 8’s visiting our 250–acre woodland site. The pupils attend a pupil referral unit and we’re making fishing rods. We are fortunate enough to manage a fishing lake. The pupils use a variety of tools to make cane fishing rods.


It’s important to these pupils that any task we give them is completed within the day; it’s all hands on deck to make them. Once completed it’s a short walk from our bushcraft site to the lake.


Plenty of catches throughout the day, which is fantastic and a great opportunity for young people to practice patience, relaxing at the water’s edge.


For this topic, we are making potage. The children peel seasonal vegetables and prepare wild rabbit to add to the potage stew.


It’s always great when the class teacher leads by example, getting fully involved in game preparation. Children ask super questions exploring moral and ethical issues around eating wild animals. What is surprising is how many can’t identify vegetables e.g. parsnips and turnips.


After peeling vegetables and preparing the rabbit, the children place them in cooking pots, suspended over a fire. When the stew is cooked, they all have the opportunity to try a mouthful.


Wednesday


Today we’re delivering a lesson in survival at a school, looking at habitats and what humans and animals need to survive.


This topic covers all things survival – shelter building, making fires, cooking, food preparation, making tools, traps and weapons; it’s a favourite for our team.


We cover cross–curricular activities e.g. maths and design technology.


We finish off with the group climbing inside their shelters, then we throw copious amounts of water over them to see how waterproof they are – always great fun for both parties!


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