MISSION STATEMENT

1. Children need movement and space to discover themselves

Nature offers children vast freedom of movement, a variety of experiences, and unlimited opportunities to discover their natural surroundings. Their motor skills, physical flexibility, and control of their own bodies are improved manifold simply through play in the great outdoors. Nature offers a world without walls or ceiling, in which children find themselves automatically encouraged to be active. The resulting experiences offer feelings of personal success, helping to build and strengthen their self-belief. The children are encouraged to play out ideas and games of their own design and imagination, enabling a better understanding of their own limitations and helping them to better deal with frustration. They directly experience nature, getting to know and appreciate the connectedness of the world and all its elements. Nature is vast and always offers sufficient space and room. We see movement as a basic principle of a physically and mentally fulfilling life. If a child is able to respond from the youngest age to their natural desire to move, he or she is also able to fully develop cognitively, emotionally, and socially. Nature both excites and explains, and allows children to experience a deep sense of connection with everything around them.

2. Children need to experience life with all their senses

At the Durango Forest School, we know that children are naturally inquisitive and experimental. They are quick to learn and memorize their own impressions of the world. Touching, smelling, feeling, listening, seeing, balancing, running, and climbing: They understand more of the world around them and their own bodies with every new experience. We can inspire and stimulate an understanding of nature and the environment by offering children a broad range of such possibilities for direct experience, mirroring the diversity of nature itself in the range of stimuli offered to our children’s senses by the natural environment. At DFS, children are encouraged to make their own fun. Nature offers sufficient space and time to plan and execute their projects, learning to understand, build on and adapt schemes to their own capabilities. Experimentation and copying of others allow children to discover new possibilities and processes. Creativity is key, with children encouraged to create their very own playground and unique toys. With few ready-made materials available, a realm of fantasy is opened up, and they explore their own limitations, capabilities and, needs while developing new skills. The children learn to appreciate their own individual nature and strengthen their self-awareness. Self-confidence and knowledge are improved and collated through the direct power of personal experience.

3. Children need structure and routine

In nature, children experience directly the natural turning of the annual seasons. Our daily routine includes fixed hours and is designed to include recurring procedures and rituals offering comfort, orientation, and security: morning meetings, circles for greeting and goodbye, particular activities, etc. These are repeated daily and designed to include songs or games. We also allow enough time for free play and calm time. The children quickly learn the rules needed to ensure their own safety and security.

4. Children need social contact

Nature stimulates experience and activity within the group, facilitating social bonding which is of key importance in building strong social skills. Acceptance and mutual consideration form automatically, fostering positive group dynamics and encouraging integration. In the vast playground of nature, communication is vital: children learn quickly that they may say ’yes’ or ’no’, that they need to listen to each other and seek agreement among themselves. We actively encourage the children to recognize and act upon their own needs and feelings within the group. Friendships are built, within which sharing and patience are learned. Of course, there are also conflicts, and we support the children in finding solutions. Every day, we experience situations in which children ask each other for assistance and offer help to others. The children decide with whom, where, how, and for how long they wish to play.

5. Children need trust and a sense of security

For optimal development, children need to feel safe, secure, and confident. These are prerequisites for learning processes across the intellectual, emotional and, social domains. With our teacher-to-student ratios, individual care is guaranteed. We accept the child as they are and focus attention on the positives.

At the Durango Forest School, children enjoy a great deal of freedom thanks to the natural setting. There are however rules which must be adhered to. These look primarily to guarantee the health and safety of the children, as well as the needs of the group. In conversation with the children, we look to explain these rules in such a comprehensible way as to make them easy and natural for them to follow. The values we convey to the children are clear, understandable, and sensible.

The everyday needs and worries of the children are taken seriously, in that we seek to understand them and to offer the child dependable assistance at all times. This allows the child to develop their own self-confidence, trusting also their immediate environment and building confidence in their right to seek protection and assistance.  The teachers offer attention, empathy, and quiet attendance, enabling them to take each child’s individual needs seriously, according to their own very personal speed and phase of development. Emotions are met face-to-face, spoken of openly, and guided as necessary. Nature offers a blank canvas for individual experience and experimentation, offering each child according to their age the possibility to see directly the consequences of their own actions.

6. Children need to be fostered

Time spent in nature also fosters good health and happiness, which is vital to children’s everyday lives. As well as the active phases of our day, quietness, relaxation, and rest are also key. We pay attention to children’s body language, accept their wishes and assist them in their needs. We offer the children a relaxed environment to eat, in which they decide for themselves, if and what they wish to eat and drink, and allowing them to develop their own natural curiosity towards food types through experiencing food as a positive, sensuous adventure. We also emphasize the importance of a healthy, balanced diet.

Hygiene is explained to the children, together with the rules and reasoning behind personal hygiene. This optimizes protection against dangers such as germs and bug bites. Each child may choose the teacher who assists them, as required, in going to the toilet. Children are accompanied and assisted with loving care insofar as they themselves request our presence.

7. Children need dependable caregivers

The various discussions and agreements with children’s parents or primary carers are of great value to us. Through talking to each other, we are able to experience not just our own slice of the child’s everyday life, but to enrich our understanding through mutual exchange of experience. We seek to assist families on the journey of their child’s development and to relieve them of some of the pressure of understanding and meeting their changing needs. We greet children with a smile and zest for life and guarantee they will be well cared for.

We are dedicated in our work and are pleased to put the child first, every time and without reservation. We commit ourselves to the child’s holistic development, looking at the physical, psychological and social aspects as a whole. In caring for each individual child, we look to assist actively, through positive encouragement, in each step of their development. We also assist children in the management of their daily lives and in dealing with their impressions and experiences, looking to see things through their eyes and accept and understand their feelings. This offers the children emotional and social security; we are a place of safety, people to trust, with a set of clear values.