Climbing Trees

With a group on Friday morning we have been exploring the safest way for children to climb trees as part of their Forest School activities. With this small group it was much easier to explore and discuss the issues with the children so that they could feel safe and give their own feedback about how to keep the activity both manageable and safe. The children in the group all varied in confidence in this activity from those who were happy being a metre or so off the ground to those who wanted to get to the top of the tree. 

The children were clear about which trees were the best to climb and and why, also about what was a reasonable height for a confident climber to go to. As well they helped to decide the number of children allowed to climb at any one time and the number of adults that should supervise.

We also explored safety in terms of routes up and down the tree and how it was important to test and feel confident in the next step and what to do if they hear a branch crack.

All these ideas will be put into our tree climbing policy so that other children will be able to benefit from the opportunity of climbing trees.