Forest School Themed Summer Camp 2 2026

Greetings!

I am very excited to be running my second Forest School themed Summer Camp of summer 2026 on my land in Donadea, Co. Kildare, ‘An Choill Beag’ or Littlewood, which is just down the road from Donadea Forest Park!!

I am Lucy Bell of Growing Wild, and I am a long-time certified forest school leader, with over 11 years of experience running Forest School Programmes for children, adolescents, and adults. I was involved in developing the new QQI Level 6 Certificate in Forest School Leadership. I am also an organic horticulturist, and I run food growing, seedsaving and biodiversity sessions in a variety of settings. Check out my work here: www.growingwild.ie

The Forest School themed Summer Camp will run for 4 days:

Monday 20th July - Thursday 23rd July 2026.

A bit about Forest School:

We will be offering time in nature, free play, woodland crafts, den building, rope work, nature crafts, mud area, make and create with tools, we also play games to increase our nature connection, these sessions are underpinned by our method which is child led- and choice based, to allow for the holistic development of the child and to facilitate getting kids back to nature, in all weathers.

Time: 10.00am to 2pm

Age: From age: 5- to 12-year-olds

Location: An Choill Beag (Littlewood), Donadea, Co. Kildare.

Cost: €160 for the 4 days.

A bit more about Forest School!:

This Summer camp is a Forest School - themed Camp. This will be run following the ethos of forest school, which is about choice based and child led play, it is not an activity based camp, though we will be running lots of different activities over the camp, forest school allows space for the children to direct the activities that they want to do, and we will offer different crafts, skills with tools, wanders in nature among many other activities. Forest School allows children follow their own needs and interests while also connecting to nature in an informal setting. If you are looking for a product-based activity-based camp, this is not the camp to attend!

Forest School is based around allowing children spend quality, recurring time in nature, which allows for the holistic learning and development of the child. Forest School is child-led and designed to develop the children’s relationship to themselves, each other, learning and nature in a safe way. Each child will engage with this in their own way and our aim is to support that as forest school leaders. This is not a bushcraft or activity led programme, it is directed by the needs of the children and directed by what they want to do.

A bit about the facilitators:

Lucy Bell of Growing Wild has over 15 years’ experience working with children in the outdoors. Lucy is a highly experienced Forest School leader and is a trainer with the Adult Forest School Leadership Training Programme and has run Forest School throughout Ireland for over 11 years and was a Heritage in Schools Specialist for over 10 years. Lucy is also an organic horticulturalist and works in a variety of community settings.

Growing Wild works with several highly skilled and experienced Forest School Leaders to run their programmes. They are all garda vetted and have their own Public Liability Insurance cover.

We also have volunteers who work with us on a regular basis, our volunteers are also garda vetted and come under Growing Wild's P.L. Insurance cover as volunteers.

If you want to read all Growing Wild's Health & Safety statements, risk assessments and see the staff and volunteers garda vetting, please click here.

For more information about what we do have a look here: www.growingwild.ie

We hope to see you in An Choill Beag!

Lucy & co.