Barracks Lane Forest School
Nature in mind, wellbeing at heart.
Flo’s Forest School is set at the beautiful Barracks Lane Community garden - a great place for children to explore and learn in nature at the heart of our community space.
Opening times and dates
Open Tuesdays to Thursdays from 9.30–2.30 - term-time only.
We accept 2, 3 or 4-year-old funding
Our sessions
Our days unfold in an idyllic environment. Fruit trees, aromatic herbs, vibrant flowers and herbs. We have also adopted a raised bed to grow our own vegetables. This hands-on experience allows children to witness nature’s life cycles.
We use the natural environment to play, explore, experiment and grow together; meeting and connecting with each other is at the nurturing heart. Our daily rhythm responds to the needs and interests of our participants while providing a nurturing structure to the day.
Sometimes we help making the fire or chopping wood, measuring, sometimes we choose to build dens, ladders to help us climb trees, make boats for our flooded stream, paint, cut, cook (in the mud kitchen or in the real fire!), or simply hang around observing nature’s actions in silence or while chatting away. Endless possibilities are formed in an organic way.
Our approach
Nurturing Resilience
Taking risks, be they physical, cognitive, or emotional, is an integral part of our program. The children at our Nursery are invited to take risks; building obstacle courses to challenge their skills, learning how to use tools, fire making, finding their own boundaries and expressing boundaries to their friends while staying safe.
A Haven for All Seasons
Our garden boasts a compost toilet with changing facilities, several potties, a child toilet seat and a step to encourage toileting independence. We also have an outdoor kitchen that we can use both for food preparation and for doing arts and crafts while looking at the tree tops from the neighbourhood. The garden has a spacious and incredibly cosy wooden cabin with a clean and effective wood burner; the children help set up the fire every morning in the cold days while others help themselves to books and drawing under warm and cosy lights.
A path of exploration
Our long-term approach allows children to develop, revisit and adapt their learning; knowledge is gained through lived experiences, shaped by the natural world around us. We build our own resources to make sense of the routines; we made tree cookies to sign ourselves in and our ‘Wheel of the Week’ brings meaningful structure into our days.
For more information
For more information about this setting please email adrianag@flosoxford.org.uk
Apply for a place
If you are a prospective parent/carer and would like to register your interest in joining the nursery please complete the form linked below.
Contact us
If you have any questions or would like to find out when our next open morning is, please contact us by emailing nursery@flosoxford.org.uk
