Risk & Adventure in Early Years Outdoor Play
Learning from Forest Schools
- Sara Knight - Teacher and Forest School Leader
This book will give you the confidence to offer the children in your setting adventurous and challenging outdoor activities, as well as ways to utilise natural resources to their best advantage. There is clear, practical advice on what you need to do, which is underpinned by the theory that supports the benefits of this approach. Examples from settings are included, to illustrate best practice and to show how things can be achieved.
Issues considered include:
- being outside in 'bad' weather
- the importance of risk-taking
- the benefits of rough and tumble play
- observing and assessing children in this mode
- how these experiences improve children's learning
- explaining activities to parents, colleagues and managers
- ensuring health and safety requirements are met
- the role of the adult in facilitating these experiences.
Suitable for all students and practitioners working with young children from Birth to 8 , this book will not only give you ideas for outdoor play but also help you understand exactly what you are doing, why it is educationally sound and developmentally important for children, and where it connects with the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) in England, the Foundation Phase (FP) in Wales and the Curriculum for Excellence in Scotland.
Sara Knight is an experienced early years educator and Senior Lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University. She is a trained Forest School practitioner and author of Forest Schools and Outdoor Learning in the Early Years.
'the book has considerable strengths as a resource for Early Years practitioners, and the staff of a setting could well use it to support the systematic development of their outdoor provision, discussing and using the activities and points for practice incorporated into each chapter'
- Valerie Huggins, Early Years
'Chapter 8 of this book is one of the most sensible pieces of writing I have read on risk assessment. Very well balanced, clear and concise advice when weighing up the benefits of learning with risk factors involved...The practical advice in this excellent book is underpinned by the latest theory that supports its use, and is further backed by real-life examples. With a further book on Forest Schools in the pipeline, the author is leading by example in the drive to get children and practitioners outdoors, enjoying the many benefits that nature brings' -
Early Years Educator
'I cannot imagine an author more qualified to write about outdoor play in the
early years...a clearly-written, well-structured book that is full of useful suggestions for activities, implications for practice, and sources for further reading. It is recommended in particular to practicing early years educators who would like to –
as the back cover implores us –“incorporate the wilder and riskier elements of outdoor play into their planning”'
-Educational Review
This is a clearly-written, well-structured book that is full of useful suggestions for activities, implications for practice, and sources for further reading.
This book is relevant to several modules on the course and so I have made it recommended reading.
This book is recommended reading as it has relevance to several modules. Sara Kinght has an easy style and is passionate about her topic.
A well-structured easy read - very good introduction to the outdoor classroom and the learning opportunities for young children
This book is presented well and in a similar format we have come to know from Sarah Knight. It is structured clearly and supportive of outdoor play which is underpinned with theory. The risk assessment offers a common sense approach which supports self assessment. Overall a very good practical book with clear examples.
Links well to course content
The perfect text to encourage early years, primary and forest school staff to consider the issue of risk.
This book is clear and concise and offers students advice and ideas regarding how to create risk and adventure in their play experiences outdoors.
This is a well illustrated book that carefully explores the elements of risk in outdoor play. The book includes a chapter on fire, this is a current topic of interest and relates well to Forest School Education. This chapter discusses the role fire plays in learning about the outdoors. This book would support those considering outdoor education or Forest School provision.
