Dreckly Woods Forest School

01/09/2026

So today was the last of our Dreckly Junior Forest Ranger sessions and what a fantastic summer it has been! We have loved every minute of it and from the bottom of our hearts we want to thank everybody that has attended.💚 The dream of Dreckly Woods couldn't have happened without you all. We have been so impressed with how engaged all the kids have been, how willing to try new skills (even when they are challenging) and we have loved watching new little friendships blossom amongst the group.

Today was another Multi skills EGGstravaganza and the Junior Forest Ranger's skills were certainly put into practice. All eggs remained safe in the mini den and nest drop challenges (despite a little 'first aid' on a couple) losing us 6 bags of marshmallows as prizes to all 6 winners! We had a mini fire lighting challenge to light a fire on a baking tray and keep it lit using natural materials. All kids toasted marshmallows, one fried an egg to give to the wildlife and we even had a magnificent cheese omelette cooked over the campfire. Plus lots of games squeezed in - camouflage, forest fire (with puppies and hedgehogs) and of course sardines and hide and seek tag. Before our 3 fully fledged Junior Forest Rangers received their certificates

What has really amazed us this summer has been each child's individual journey, watching progress through enjoyment and connections with nature. We have seen huge leaps in ability to focus, self-assertion, listening skills, safe risk taking, confidence in talking to adults and peers, independence, turn taking, dealing with frustrations and being curious. We deliberately leave time and space for free play, letting imaginations grow and senses engage and you have all done that so well. To our Junior Forest Rangers, please know that at Dreckly Woods you are always celebrated for being you and what a fantastic first group you have been!

As the summer holidays are coming to an end, we are trying to put plans in for what term time at Dreckly Woods will look like. So far we have our two Home Ed sessions coming up on Thursday and Friday this week - both of which are now FULLY BOOKED (although we hope to continue running this if demand remains). We have some availability for birthday parties and are hoping to run October half term sessions and maybe even a Halloween party/pumpkin carving session. We also have some interest in occasional Saturday sessions for those who are back to school. If you are interested in any of these events please keep an eye out on our page and contact us to book. Most boringly (although vitally important) we also have a lot of admin, grant applications, registrations and a mountain of coursework to complete which will keep us busy until we can get more regular funding in place. We also have plans for the woodland over the winter - hopefully two wildlife ponds, a toolshed and improved shelters (Donna also wants a tree house, a zipline and a poly tunnel but these will have to wait). Thank you to all our followers and people that have expressed interest so far. Please share our page to keep Dreckly Woods Forest School running and help us in growing our inclusive woodland community. To any parents, if your child has experienced Dreckly Woods first hand, could we please ask you to take a little time to leave us a Google review (link in comments). 🙏🏼 This all helps with grant applications and funding to help us grow and keep prices low. We look forward to meeting some new faces later this week and hope to see you all in the woods soon 🌳💚

30/08/2026

Still spaces available for our Friday Home Ed session. Thursday is fully booked. PM us to secure a space for your child.🌳💚

🌿 DUE TO POPULAR DEMAND… WE’RE RUNNING A SECOND HOME ED SESSION! 🌿

Our first Home Ed session has been so popular that we’ve added another date! 🎉

Come and join us at Dreckly Woods Forest School for a morning of learning, playing, exploring and connecting with nature. 🌳🪵🐛

📅 Friday 4th September
⏰ 10am–1pm
👧 Any age welcome
💚 £5 per child – adults FREE

Activities will be arranged throughout the session, but there’s absolutely no pressure to join in. Children can follow their interests, explore the woods, play freely and make new friends.

🌿 Example activities:
🪵 Den building
🔪 Whittling & woodcraft
🔥 Campfire activities
🎨 Nature arts & crafts
🐛 Wildlife conservation
🔬 Science experiments
🌱 STEM activities
🌳 Exploring & free play
🎲 Nature games
✨ Sensory activities

Parents are welcome to stay and enjoy the session or pre-arrange a drop-off place.
⚠️ Drop-off spaces are limited to 12 children to ensure the correct ratios, so pre-booking is essential.
⚠️Due to limited parking we can only allow 12 cars, limiting stay and play options to 12 families.

🥪 Please bring your own snacks and drinks.

Come along, get muddy, make friends and enjoy a little bit of woodland freedom! 🌳💚
If demand continues, we may make these a regular thing! 👀🌿

30/08/2026

What a fabulous Multi skills EGGstravaganza, our final Saturday session of our Junior Forest Ranger course. Yesterday we bought all the skills we have learnt over the last 6 weeks together, with the Egg-citing challenge of keeping our egg safe using the skills we have learnt. After decorating and naming our eggs we made mini dens to protect them from falling pine cones. We loved the imagination and attention to detail, considering where the force will be coming from and which materials would be able to keep our eggs safe. They all explained their choices to the rest of the group before testing our dens by dropping a pine cone at waist height and then head height. They all survived the test, although one little ranger managed to break 4 eggs throughout the day resulting in a lot of silly chicken dance forfeits. We then made a nest to protect our eggs from being dropped from a height. Again all survived the drop (apart from my egg 'Egg-wood' that was sabotaged by the serial egg breaking child). After a bit of a free play we headed to the fire circle. As we had missed our fire lighting week due to the weather we had a go at using the flint and steels. There was a lot of perseverance, with some finding it harder than they had expected, but all managed to light their fires in the end. They toasted marshmallows (and even made an ingenious marshmallow spit) and chose various ways to cook their eggs on the fire. We even had a close encounter with a slow worm which the kids called Jeff. We learnt how slow worms aren't actually snakes but lizards without legs. Most were brave enough to hold or stroke Jeff, looking at his scales through magnifying glasses and learning about the types of habitats they live in before setting him free. Although emotionally, saying goodbye to Jeff was hard, we knew that this was in his best interest. We had a little reflection on what we had most enjoyed and were most proud of achieving over the weeks at Dreckly Woods. We have seen so much progress in these junior rangers, socially, in the skills they've learnt and the confidence they've gained. Happy woodland days!🌳💚

28/08/2026

🌿 DUE TO POPULAR DEMAND… WE’RE RUNNING A SECOND HOME ED SESSION! 🌿

Our first Home Ed session has been so popular that we’ve added another date! 🎉

Come and join us at Dreckly Woods Forest School for a morning of learning, playing, exploring and connecting with nature. 🌳🪵🐛

📅 Friday 4th September
⏰ 10am–1pm
👧 Any age welcome
💚 £5 per child – adults FREE

Activities will be arranged throughout the session, but there’s absolutely no pressure to join in. Children can follow their interests, explore the woods, play freely and make new friends.

🌿 Example activities:
🪵 Den building
🔪 Whittling & woodcraft
🔥 Campfire activities
🎨 Nature arts & crafts
🐛 Wildlife conservation
🔬 Science experiments
🌱 STEM activities
🌳 Exploring & free play
🎲 Nature games
✨ Sensory activities

Parents are welcome to stay and enjoy the session or pre-arrange a drop-off place.
⚠️ Drop-off spaces are limited to 12 children to ensure the correct ratios, so pre-booking is essential.
⚠️Due to limited parking we can only allow 12 cars, limiting stay and play options to 12 families.

🥪 Please bring your own snacks and drinks.

Come along, get muddy, make friends and enjoy a little bit of woodland freedom! 🌳💚
If demand continues, we may make these a regular thing! 👀🌿

27/08/2026

Due to limited parking our Home Ed session is now FULLY BOOKED. If there is enough interest for us to run a second session (for any of you that haven't been able to secure a space on 3rd September) then we could do Wednesday 2nd or Friday 4th September. PM us if you are interested in potentially booking a space on one of these days and we will confirm if we have enough interest and which day we might be running.

All parents that have expressed interest so far in attending on 3rd September, please note that your child has been provisionally allocated a space but we will need payment of £5 per child to secure their place. Any inquiries that aren't paid for by Monday will be reallocated. If you would like to be added to our waiting list for possible available spaces please let us know.

We are really looking forward to inviting the home ed community into our woodland. There clearly is a need!🌳💚

26/08/2026

🥚🌲 OUR FINAL JUNIOR FOREST RANGER SESSIONS! 🌲🥚

It’s time to celebrate 6 weeks of woodland adventures with a MULTI-SKILLS EGGstravaganza! 🎉🥚

Every young ranger will be given an egg and challenged to use all the skills they’ve learned along the way to keep it safe! 🥚💪

🌿 Build a mini den to protect your egg from an egg storm
🪺 Design and build a nest for the BIG drop challenge
🔥 Cook your egg inside a pepper over the campfire
🤝 Teamwork, problem solving, woodland skills & plenty of fun!

And, of course, we’ll finish by celebrating everything our Junior Rangers have achieved over the course. 🌲🏕️🏅

📅 Saturday 29th August | 2–5pm
📅 Tuesday 1st September | 9am–12pm
💷 £30 per child
📍 Dreckly Woods, Pipers Pool

These are our LAST Junior Forest Ranger sessions of the summer, so if your young ranger has loved the course, don’t miss this final adventure! 💚

🥚🌿 All skills. All fun. All rangers!

Spaces are limited — book your place and come and give your egg the best chance of survival! 😂🥚🌲

25/08/2026

🌿 HOME ED IN THE WOODS! 🌿

We’re opening up Dreckly Woods for a relaxed, fun, inclusive Home Ed Forest School session (and possibly more).🌳🔥

📅 Thursday 3rd September
⏰ 10am–1pm
👧 Any age
💚 £5 per child – adults FREE
📍location: Dreckly Woods, Pipers Pool, PL15 8QG. (What3words//: pesky.radically.fruits)

Expect a mix of woodland adventures, with activities each week including nature crafts, wildlife conservation, science & STEM experiments, sensory activities, woodland games, campfire activities, den building and plenty of time to explore and free play.

There’s no pressure to join in – activities will be running throughout the morning and children can dip in and out at their own pace. We are inclusive of children which SEND (although cannot currently offer a 1:1) and parents are welcome to stay, or pre-arranged drop-off is available.

Spaces are limited, with just 12 drop-off and 12 stay and play places available to ensure the correct ratios, so pre-booking is strongly advised.

🍎 Bring your own snacks and drinks.

If we get enough interest, we’d love to make Home Ed at Dreckly Woods a regular thing! If you want it, use it.🌿💚

Come along, meet some other home-ed families and spend a morning learning, playing and exploring in our secure 1.6 acre broadleaf woodland. 🌳✨

Contact us with your child's name, age, stay/drop off and payment of £5 per child to book a space.🌳💚

25/08/2026

Today was the second of our Campfire Chefs and Woodland Scientists sessions and the end of week 5 of our Junior Forest Ranger course. It is lovely to see them all gaining in confidence in all areas of Forest School - both in their skills and in social interactions. We started with our usual chat around the fire circle. If you were stuck on a desert island and could only take one food, that you would never get bored of, what would you take? We had chicken and mushroom noodles, fizzy sweets, cucumber, cod, toast and cheese pizza. We then played a couple of games - forest fire on the climbing tree (made harder by the rain making it slippery). The fire had to stay on the log whilst the woodland animals tried to cross without getting caught. We then went to find the Dreckly Woods bat houses and bug hotel before playing a game of bat and moth, using our echo location skills to catch a clapping moth with our eyes closed. This proved harder than expected with some of our little bats going hungry. Next it was time to start with our cooking skills. Half the group made their bread dough, whilst the other group used shears and loppers to cut willow sticks to peel with whittling knives. The groups then swapped over, getting a chance to practice both skills before toasting their damper bread over the campfire. Unfortunately the logs had gotten a bit wet so the fire was of limited success, as was the bread. We had a combination of burnt and raw bread so decided to feed it to Eli and the foxes instead. Things don't always go right when we try something new and that is ok. We cooked popcorn, marshmallows and bananas over the fire instead before moving on to a choice of making our exploding volcanoes or playing sardines. Some good hiding spots in sardines and some exciting explosions from the Rangers that chose to make volcano reactions. I also tried to demonstrate elephant toothpaste. We talked about how popcorn pops and what makes each mixture react. We finished the day by discussing which our favourite games were that we have played at Dreckly Woods. Sardines seems to be the favourite, closely followed by Forest Fire. Next week is our last week of our summer holiday sessions. Multi skills EGGstravaganza and presentation day. We have 3 fully fledged Junior Forest Rangers!! Still time to join in next week, try each of our skills in mini version, parents are welcome to come along and celebrate with us (and maybe join in with some of our challenges). 🌳💚

22/08/2026

Today was the first of our campfire chefs and woodland scientists sessions. We made damper bread on peeled willow sticks and cooked them over a small fire. We then tried cooking popcorn in a pan, it was exciting to see and hear the kernels pop. The first batch 'caramelised' a little too much (nothing at Dreckly Woods ever gets burnt) but once we got the technique of holding the pan higher off the fire and shaking it occasionally, we managed to create some perfectly yummy popcorn (with sweet and savoury seasoning). Unfortunately the birds missed out on their share as it was very popular with today's junior forest rangers.😋 After putting out our fire fully, we headed to the play area. The kids challenged Helen to get from one side of the ninja warrior slackline to the other without touching the ground. There was a lot of intentional wobbling going on to try and knock her off but a very good attempt by Helen. We then turned our skills towards woodland science in a vinegar and bicarbonate of soda volcanic eruption. We filled our bottles with bicarb, food dye and washing up liquid before building our volcanoes around them. Some had trees, moats, moss and stick people around them, we loved all the creativity! Adding vinegar to our bottles created an exciting reaction, making our volcanoes ooze with 'lava'. 🌋 More campfire chefs and woodland scientists on Tuesday (3 spaces left).
Happy, creative woodland days!🌳💚

22/08/2026

We are accumulating foxes! Our resident fox bought a little friend along last night and had a little wrestle. Dreckly Woods Forest School