Course Description

'Fantastic. The day flew past and I only wish it could have been longer'

At a glance, this course:

• Nurturing a love of nature in the next generation
• Supports people's wellbeing
• Connects people with nature

Jon Cree will also be teaching Supporting Children through Anxiety and Trauma on the Sunday of the same weekend.

About the course

A one day course in building your own play structures with rope and natural materials.  This course is for educators wishing to be a little more adventurous with creative play structures at their sites, building them out of wood and rope and combining these with the natural features at your site. We will be sharing techniques and know-how on building safe but slightly risky (!) structures with children that can enhance creativity and physical play at your forest school site.

We will be looking at techniques for making:

• Rope swings, rope bridges, rope crawls and rope walks
• Combining wood with rope including simple rope ladders
• Making free standing wooden structures such as ladders and sculptures to climb on

Including tips on:

• How to minimise impact of structures on Forest school sites
• Keeping within the health and safety guidelines for safe construction and use of natural structures

We will look at basic tool work, knot and rope work in order to construct ladders, ‘climbing frames’, temporary rope swings and rope courses, as well as putting up and playing with strap-lines. We will look at how to work with young people in constructing basic structures that includes working with trees or if the trees in your own settings are limited how to construct features by adding structures such as ‘beams’ to trees and working with A frames and ‘safe anchoring’.  

The training course will also cover all the health and safety aspects of working with ‘constructed’ play structures and ropes, looking at risk benefit assessments and key requirements.

The course will give you:

• Skills and confidence to build safe natural play structures from wood, ropes and natural features
• Knot tying skills and techniques for building ladders and setting up rope courses
• Knowledge on how to minimise impact of natural play structures on your site
• Understanding of Health and Safety guidelines for safe construction and use of natural structures

This course is suitable for:

Forest School leaders, bushcraft instructors, outdoor educators and enthusiastic parents with experience of tool use (i.e. sawing) and knot tying.

What to bring:

• Suitable clothing for spending the day outside
• Sturdy footwear
• Packed lunch or lunch can be purchased from the Beech Café on site

Cancellations, refunds, and bursaries:

Read the full Adult Courses Cancellations and Refunds Policy and Courses Bursary Fund Information.

About the tutor

Jon Cree has nearly 40 years' experience as an environmental earth educator and trainer. He is a Forest School trainer, practitioner and director for the Forest School Association. ​ His passion is helping others ‘get in touch’ with the natural world through dynamic learning programmes and hand-on learning experiences. He has been part of the institute for Earth Education for almost 30 years and a trainer for 20. For many years, global learning has underpinned his education work, working particularly with Teachers in Development Education (TIDE).