The Importance of play

Throughout the years it has come to mind how important it is for a child to experience play. In addition to them expressing feelings, by playing, children are able to act out being sad, angry, happy through role play. Pretend play allows them to think out loud about their feelings and develop coping strategies to help them in a given situation. 

Physical Development 
Play contributes to a child's fine and gross motor development as well as body awareness as they actively use their bodies. Experimenting with writing tools helps children develop their fine motor skills. Gross motor development, such as hopping and skipping will be developed in a similar sense but for example when children first learn to hop they will experiment by hopping on the same foot or hopping on different feet out of pure enjoyment. As the child will grow older they will use these skills such as hopping in games such as hopscotch and rope jumping games.

                                                                                  Creative Development 

Sigmund Freud (1958) suggested that every child at play "behaves like a creative writer, in that he creates a world of his own, or, rather, rearranges the things of his world in a new way which pleases him.... the creative writer does the same as the child at play. He creates a world of fantasy which he takes very seriously- that is, which he invests with large amounts of emotion"

Social and Emotional Development 

During play, children also increase their social competence and emotional maturity. Smilansky and Shefatya (1990) contend that school success largely depends on children’s ability to interact positively with their peers and adults. Play is vital to children’s social development. It enables children to do the following:

• Practice both verbal and nonverbal communication skills by negotiating roles, trying to gain access to ongoing play, and appreciating the feelings of others (Spodek & Saracho, 1998).
• Respond to their peers’ feelings while waiting for their turn and sharing materials and experiences (Sapon-Shevin, Dobbelgere, Carrigan, Goodman, & Mastin, 1998; Wheeler, 2004).
• Experiment with roles of the people in their home, school, and community by coming into contact with the needs and wishes of others (Creasey, Jarvis, & Berk, 1998; Wheeler, 2004).
• Experience others’ points of view by working through conflicts about space, materials, or rules positively (Smilansky & Shefatya, 1990; Spodek & Saracho, 1998).

Forest Schools

Forest schools provide children with a different approach to learning. An approach to outdoor play and education within a woodland environment.

Forest school teachers believe the 'richness' of education outdoors is much more of that indoors. It is very much a child led process where the children are able to express themselves through play and choose to learn in whatever way they like, whilst the teachers role is not to teach but observe.


Children are able to make loud noises and big noises and experience a different sense of learning through touching, smelling, holding and watching everything outdoors. By the children being able to engage in activities they have chosen to do, it is said that they gain confidence, self esteem, knowledge and love for that environment.


Forest school teachers believe that children learn about the world by 'digging into it', 'cutting into it' and 'rolling into it', children need to learn to manage risks. Children are taught to identify possible hazards for example, a slippery tree. Children learn to think about the potential risks of things if they engage in them.



At forest school all participants are viewed as:

• Equal, unique and valuable
• Competent to explore and discover
• Entitled to experience appropriate risk and challenge
•  Entitled to choose, and to initiate and drive their own learning and development 
• Very willing to develop positive relationships with themselves and other people around them
• Entitled to develop a positive relationship with their own natural world. 

"The Forest School Association is the professional body and UK wide voice for forest school, promoting best practice, cohesion and 'quality forest school for all'. Click here to find out more about the forest school association.