Children of the Forest turned a 3acre Devon wood into a learning environment centred around child led pedagogy and sustainable woodland management. Their forward-thinking approach was recognised with Gold in the Royal Forestry Society’s 2025 Education & Learning awards, supported by the Duchy of Cornwall and PEFC.

Judges praised Children of the Forest’s founder Lewis Ames for delivering engaging, hands-on outdoor learning rooted in the principle that the best way to learn is through choice, active participation and real-life application.

The approach is built on the six forest school principles:
• Long term practice
• Takes place in a natural environment
• Involves holistic planning and activities
• Run by qualified forest school leader
• Risk-taking is integral to the process
• It happens with the same group of people over a long period of time

These principles provide the foundation of their work, but Lewis’ approach has evolved from this over time. He now sees his role centring around community space-holding and holistic relationship building.

Lewis commented: “It may look different from some other forest schools, where the focus might be on participants leaving sessions with specific bushcraft skills or completing a defined period of social or emotional development. When we hold authentic community in spaces where nature-based activities are taking place, these things emerge naturally without needing to be imposed.”

One of the best ways to engage and learn is by being able to ‘do’; to experience real life examples and get stuck in with some hands-on activities that inspire. That is what you get when you join a session at Children of the Forest.

Children are encouraged to lead their own play, facilitated by the forest school leader. This means allowing participants to follow their interests and believing that their ideas have educational and developmental value. By valuing their autonomy and interests, a relationship builds between them and the facilitator.

Facilitators are encouraged to say ‘yes’ as much as they can, enabling participants to follow their intuition and creativity.

Activities at Children of the Forest range from tool use and open-fire cooking to clay oven building and planting a small orchard.

This is proving particularly successful with neurodiverse individuals who do not always respond to conventional approaches to learning. This also goes for those who have had poor experiences with education or may be coming into sessions with anxiety or low confidence.

Lewis says this is about meeting people where they are and validating their experiences rather than telling them things like "it will all be okay". The long-term nature of this way of working allows them to take a more holistic approach to development, accepting that this process takes time.

Non-judgemental is a term that forms the backbone of the Children of the Forest’s ethos, but Lewis stresses that it should not be confused with simply being permissive. What it means is to support behaviour and practical skills development in ways other than through judgement, praise, rewards, punishments, sanctions or verbal measures. Instead, they promote behaviour and skill development by controlling the environment.

“This might involve the physical space we set out, the way we position logs or benches, or the resources we make available,” said Lewis. “We decide what is available freely and what is available by request. We also control the ratios at which we are comfortable working. As much as we try to say yes, we are also transparent and honest with participants.”

Although from a teaching background Lewis has built his knowledge around woodland management since purchasing the 3-acre site.

The site contains the overspill of a conifer plantation and ancient woodland with bluebell cover and significant examples of chestnut and beech. Unmanaged for over 30 years, a major challenge was managing out of control holly that dominated the middle story. They have started to plant hazel and juniper, which is unpalatable to deer, to develop a mixed age woodland.

Lewis has worked closely with the Bulworthy Project to develop and diversify the site and secure funding. He has a woodland management plan where creating a space for play is the key objective. This was a first for the woodland management company.

“We cut many at twenty to thirty feet high and coronet cut the tops to create lots of habitat,” Lewis said. “At ground level, rather than having huge tree stumps everywhere looking like a graveyard, these trees remain tall, provide habitat, and because they are dead standing, offer huge artistic opportunity.

“We can carve faces, create handprints and put our own stamp onto the woodland without damaging living trees, which would be very detrimental to their health.”

Sessions are carefully managed to minimise ecological impact and the site left to rest at points throughout the year while Lewis continues his work other sites within the local community.

He utilises wood (natural and recycled) for learning throughout the site and encourages young people to create everyday objects from wood using hand tools, from dartboards and seating to tree houses. He is mindful, however, of overusing the wood’s resources so firewood is often brought in to provide enough fuel without overharvesting.

Conservation and maintaining the site is weaved into activities with children, from building ponds and bird boxes to maintaining paths and creating rides and scallops. Christmas trees are used to build dead hedges. All of this activity creates habitats and teaches participants about the part they play as stewards of the wood.

Lewis said: “When children want to do typical bushcraft activities like making bows or swords, rather than saying they cannot, we say, "Let us go for a walk and see what the woods has to offer today." We go out with the understanding that the woods may not have resources to give us.”

Wildlife cameras have shown the woods hosts badgers, deer, rabbits, foxes, barn owls, tawny owls, and we believe there may have been stoats, evidenced by scat found on a small tree stump.

Lewis has developed multiple local connections with other forest related individuals and organisations within the community, allowing him to bring in outside expertise to support sessions with young people on a range of topics, from biodiversity to historical links with the woodland, landscape and local industry.

By bringing in specialists like woodworkers, blacksmiths and wildlife experts, it showcases the many jobs to be explored in the outdoor sector when they get older.

With many young people and adults struggling with mental health issues, new approaches like this that can demonstrate real success in building self-confidence and self-esteem alongside skills, knowledge and life experiences are to be lauded.

“A huge part of this is preserving the joy in learning, curiosity and education,” Lewis added. “By respecting people's autonomy and interests, we keep that spark alive and help people stay interested in education.

“It is about pointing out things and allowing them to build their own relationship with nature. In terms of education itself, it is about nurturing curiosity and allowing them to develop a long-term love and relationship with that curiosity.”

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