All UK practitioners are welcome to complete this! Many thanks to all who contribute – your voice is important and we need to hear it!

Survey opens: Friday 14 July 2024, 0900h

Survey closes: First round, for SW England practitioners on Sunday June 23rd, 23.59h

THE LINK WILL BE LIVE HERE ON FRIDAY 14th.

The survey continues nationwide after this and we hope that the final results will be ready by the end of 2024. We will have an update for the national conference in September.

All who complete the survey gain access to a FREE webinar presentation of the results, including feedback from the world’s first Forest School Research Symposium (late June 2024).

The webinar will take place on zoom at Tuesday July 2nd at 5-6pm. This will be recorded and shared immediately. The link is shared at the end of the survey.

What is this survey about?

I am undertaking a small survey about the state of Forest School in the UK. This builds on my previous research about equality, diversity and inclusion in FS practice, and its governance or lack of. Specifically, I am interested in how land is accessed for FS, as a key under-researched area but one of great impact upon the availability of provision (McCree, 2014; McCree, Cutting and Sherwin, 2018).

With the Natural Start Alliance in the US, data collected through my survey can be compared effectively with the nationwide US surveys achieved in 2022 and in future. It’s very exciting, as the beginnings of a longitudinal open data set that can be used to evidence Forest School advances, both here and internationally. The hope is that we can progress to international data collection, with a refined set of questions that are comparable across nations and cultures. I am in discussion with the FSA about how this can work in collaboration with other national research and data collection methods, so we can mutually support each other, ensure we are effective in how we research and not waste valuable data.

Some SW England practitioners may remember the roundtable discussion I chaired at the fantastic SW FSA Conference in May 2023. This excellent session informs some of the questions in the survey, building on my previous research and literature review.

I am obsessed with the inequities in land access for FS. A key finding in my previous research (McCree, 2014) was that challenges to land access has restricted and coloured the growth of UK Forest School, and it differs internationally. Further, I have faced challenges accessing sites and supporting others in doing so. I know these challenges first hand and yet there is little research that evidences them.

This issue is significant and timely, due in part to visible inequitable access to greenspace during the pandemic. The rise of eco-anxiety, mental health crises and the rise in nature-based wellbeing practice, point to the growing need for regular, equitable access to nature. Rights to roam continue to hit the headlines.

Finally, we are facing a national crisis in early years provision, school sites and funding. The government has proposed a huge expansion of early years provision, with the extension of ‘free’ places to 1 and 2 year olds.

These needs are addressed in this study’s findings, promoting dialogue around new policy and practice. The results discuss FS as exemplary outdoor practice and update the evidence of challenges to its growth.