Behaviour Management Policy inc. Anti-Bullying Policy
Behaviour Management Strategy
Positive behaviour at Forest School looks like this:
A learner who tries something hard and stays with it, even when it is uncomfortable, uncertain or slow. One who notices the world around them: a beetle under bark, frost on a leaf, the way light changes across a morning. Who stops, looks, and wants to show someone else.
It looks like a child who disagrees and says so, with words, with honesty, without cruelty. Who listens when someone else speaks. Who makes space for a quieter voice or offers a hand without being asked.
It looks like a young person who comes back to the same place, week after week, and begins to feel that it belongs to them, and that they belong to it. Who picks up what they didn't drop. Who steps around the thing growing in the path. Who understands, slowly and genuinely, that their presence here has an impact, and chooses to make that impact a careful one.
Positive behaviour is not stillness or compliance. It is engagement with challenge, with community, with the living world. It is the willingness to be changed by this place, and to take some of that change home.
The practitioner's role is to notice it, name it and reflect it back because positive behaviour at Forest School often looks quiet, unhurried and deeply personal.
Our Approach
Our approach to behaviour management is rooted in the six Forest School principles: community, holistic development, long-term practice, deep connection with nature, meaningful risk and learner-centred leadership. Forest School works because everyone has a role. The practitioner observes, facilitates and adapts. Learners contribute, take responsibility and grow. Together, they build something that belongs to all of them.
Positive behaviour is built through:
Clear, consistent expectations that are communicated, modelled and revisited regularly across the programme.
Strong, respectful relationships where all individuals are accepted, valued and treated equally — and where the practitioner models the behaviour they hope to see.
A culture of encouragement, where effort, cooperation, curiosity and care are recognised and reinforced.
Opportunities for learners to take responsibility, make choices and reflect on their actions — including in their relationship with the natural environment.
Recognition that bold, exploratory and risk-taking behaviours are actively valued within Forest School. Learners are encouraged to push against comfortable boundaries in a supported way, and this spirit of challenge is celebrated, not suppressed.
The practitioner's role
The Forest School Leader sees themselves as a facilitator and co-learner — not an authority figure. They model respectful, curious and caring behaviour, reflect on their own practice regularly, and adapt their approach in response to ongoing observation of the group. This reflective stance is central to how behaviour is understood and managed throughout the programme.
Establishing and evolving expectations
At the start of a programme, and revisited regularly, boundaries and expectations are co-created with learners. This supports ownership, understanding and a sense of community. Non-negotiable safety boundaries are clearly explained by adults.
Routine is the quiet architecture of Forest School. The familiar opening, the consistent signal, the same walk to the same place, the closing circle at the end, these are not administrative habits. They are the conditions that make everything else possible. Routine tells a learner, before a single word is spoken, that this place is predictable, that they are safe and that they belong here. It is often the first thing that allows a child who finds the world unpredictable to begin to settle, to trust and eventually to take the kinds of risks; social, physical, emotional that Forest School exists to support. The practitioner tends to routine with the same care they bring to any other aspect of the programme, understanding that consistency across sessions is not rigidity but a form of deep respect for the learner.
Behaviour expectations evolve across the programme. What is established in early sessions is not fixed, it is built upon as trust, confidence and understanding develop. Observations made by the practitioner session to session actively inform how expectations are revisited and adapted over time, in line with the long-term nature of Forest School.
Physical boundaries of the site
Clearly identified and agreed with the group in early sessions.
Marked using natural features or markers (e.g. logs, flags, rope, trees).
Gradually extended as trust, confidence and understanding develop over the course of the programme.
Learners are supported to take shared responsibility for group awareness and for the safety of the natural environment they are working within.
Recall signals and site safety
A recall signal and emergency recall signal (e.g. whistle or call-and-response) are established early in the programme and practised regularly to ensure all learners can respond promptly and confidently. Learners are encouraged to remain within sight of an agreed landmark (e.g. fire circle, base camp or flag).
Partnership with families and professionals
Where appropriate, behaviour expectations and strategies are developed in partnership with school staff, parents/carers and, if needed, external agencies — ensuring consistent support for the learner both within and beyond the Forest School setting.
Expectation of student behaviour
Learners are supported to understand that their behaviour contributes to both their own experience and the wellbeing of the wider Forest School community and to the natural environment that hosts and sustains that community.
Behaviour at Forest School is understood within the context of holistic development. We recognise that each learner is growing emotionally, socially, physically and cognitively at their own pace and in their own way. Expectations are framed accordingly — with compassion, flexibility and a genuine belief in each learner's capacity to grow.
What we ask of every learner:
Show care and respect towards one another, the environment and all equipment.
Contribute to a positive, inclusive community where everyone is accepted, valued and treated equally.
Listen to and follow instructions, particularly in relation to safety.
Remain within agreed site boundaries and respond promptly to recall signals.
Take responsibility for your actions — understanding how your behaviour affects the people around you and the living environment beneath your feet.
Engage with activities in a way that supports your own learning and that of others.
Engage with challenge and supported risk-taking as an expected and valued part of Forest School — tolerate discomfort, uncertainty and effort as part of growth.
Express your ideas, feelings and needs — and develop the language to do so with honesty and care over time.
Relationship with others
Forest School is a community, and communities require active, ongoing effort from everyone in them. Learners are expected to:
Listen genuinely, not just wait to speak.
Notice when someone is struggling and consider how to respond.
Disagree with honesty and without cruelty.
Offer help without being asked and ask for it without shame.
Take shared responsibility for the mood, safety and belonging of the group — understanding that one person's behaviour shapes everyone's experience.
These are not rules imposed from outside. They are the conditions that make Forest School possible, and learners are invited to own them.
Relationship with the natural world
Learners are expected to develop a growing sense of responsibility for the natural environment in which they learn. This goes beyond not damaging trees or plants, it means:
Observing and noticing the ecology of the site with curiosity and respect.
Understanding the impact of their presence on habitats, soil, wildlife and plant life.
Taking an active role in caring for the site in line with its sustainable management.
Returning to the same place across the seasons and allowing that familiarity to deepen into genuine connection and care.
Developing environmentally responsible attitudes that carry beyond the Forest School setting and grow stronger across the programme.
The natural world is not a backdrop to Forest School. It is a partner in it, and learners are expected to treat it as such.
What we encourage
Beyond expectations, we actively cultivate:
Imaginative, creative and inventive play and exploration; making, inventing, building, imagining.
Self-expression through the materials, textures and rhythms of the natural world.
Collaboration that is chosen, not just assigned — working together because it produces something neither person could make alone.
Contribution to group reflection at the end of each session, strengthening shared understanding and the sense of community over time.
How expectations are held
Expectations are introduced in early sessions and revisited regularly through discussion, reflection and group check-ins. They are not delivered once and assumed to stick. They are living agreements, returned to and renewed as the group grows, as trust deepens and as the programme moves through the seasons.
The practitioner does not hold expectations over learners. They hold them alongside them.
Behaviour as Communication: A Practitioner's Process of Response
Our response to behaviour is consistent, calm and focused on understanding, support and restoration rather than punishment. We recognise that behaviour is a form of communication and our first responsibility is always to understand what it is communicating before deciding how to respond.
We also hold an important distinction clearly: not all challenging behaviour requires correction. Bold, exploratory or boundary-testing behaviour that falls within appropriate risk-taking is supported, not suppressed. The process below applies to behaviour that poses a genuine risk to safety, wellbeing or the community or to the natural environment itself.
Step 1 - Early intervention and redirection
The practitioner intervenes early, calmly and without escalation:
A quiet word, a gentle redirect, a change of activity or environment.
Positive language that names what is needed, not just what has gone wrong.
The practitioner moves towards the learner physically, emotionally rather than managing from a distance.
The goal at this stage is to interrupt a pattern before it becomes entrenched, with as little disruption to the group as possible.
Step 2 - Reflection and discussion
If early redirection is not sufficient, the practitioner creates space for a private, respectful conversation:
The learner is heard first. The practitioner listens before explaining.
Together they explore what happened, what it felt like and what impact it had on others, on the environment, on the community.
Agreed expectations are revisited not as a reprimand, but as a shared reference point that belongs to everyone.
The practitioner approaches this conversation as a facilitator, not a judge. The aim is understanding, not compliance.
Step 3 - Time and space
Where behaviour continues or where a learner needs to regulate before conversation is possible:
The learner is temporarily supported away from the activity never sent away, always accompanied or within sight.
An adult remains present, calm and unhurried.
Where appropriate, connection with the natural environment is offered as a gentle, restorative strategy; quiet time near base camp, a slow walk within boundaries, grounded sensory observation. This is a therapeutic tool, not a consequence, and is offered with warmth.
Step 4 - Nature-based reflection
After de-escalation, and once the learner is regulated and ready, a nature-based reflection exercise is offered. This is not a debrief or an interrogation. It is an invitation to process what happened through the medium of the natural world, at the learner's own pace, with the practitioner alongside rather than opposite.
The activity should feel unhurried and intrinsically meaningful. The practitioner follows the learner's lead.
Early years and younger primary (approx. 3–7 years)
At this age, reflection works best through sensory and embodied experience rather than language. The practitioner might:
Invite the child to find one thing in nature; a stone, a leaf, a feather, and simply hold it.
Sit together and watch something moving in the environment; clouds, water, insects, wind in leaves, without any expectation to speak.
Offer loose natural materials for open-ended, calming exploratory play.
Use simple, warm language: "Let's just sit here for a moment. What can you hear?"
The goal is co-regulation and a gentle return to safety not processing, not explanation.
Older primary (approx. 7–11 years)
Learners at this stage can begin to connect feelings with the natural world more explicitly. The practitioner might:
Invite the learner to find somewhere in the site that feels calm or safe to them and sit there together for a while.
Use a feeling-in-nature prompt: "If how you're feeling right now was a type of weather, what would it be?"
Invite the learner to build or arrange something with natural materials while they talk giving hands something to do can ease what the mouth finds difficult.
Offer mark-making with sticks, charcoal or mud as a way into expression.
The goal is to open a gentle conversation about what happened, how it felt and what might help in a way that feels exploratory rather than interrogative.
Secondary and older learners (approx. 11+ years)
Older learners may need more space and autonomy before reflection is possible. The practitioner might:
Offer time alone within sight, with a simple open-ended task: "Take ten minutes. Come back when you're ready."
Use a calm, open prompt on returning: "What happened for you? What do you need?"
Invite journalling, sketching or photography as a medium for processing.
Explore metaphor: "Is there something out here that feels a bit like what just happened?"
The goal is self-regulation, growing self-awareness and the beginning of restorative thinking with the practitioner as a steady, non-judgemental presence who is in no hurry.
Step 5 - Restorative action
Once the learner is ready, the focus moves to repair:
Repairing relationships; acknowledging impact, making amends, reconnecting with the group.
Repairing the environment; where harm has been caused to the natural world, the learner is supported to contribute something back. Planting, clearing, tending. An act of care that mirrors the damage done and begins to undo it.
Reintegration into the group; actively and warmly, without lingering consequence or altered status.
Restorative action is never imposed. It is arrived at together, and it is always proportionate.
Step 6 - Practitioner reflection and planning adaptation
After any significant behaviour incident, the practitioner reflects not just on what the learner did, but on what it might mean:
What is this behaviour communicating about this learner's needs, emotional state or readiness?
What does this tell us about how the session was structured, the activity offered or the environment set up?
If the incident occurred in the context of a risky activity; was this appropriate risk-taking that deserves support, or unsafe behaviour that requires a modified approach? The relevant risk-benefit assessment is reviewed accordingly.
What needs to change in future sessions; for this learner, and for the group?
This reflection is not a pastoral footnote. It is a core part of Forest School practice, and it feeds directly into planning. The practitioner may seek peer support or supervision where incidents are complex, recurring or emotionally demanding.
Step 7 - Further action
Where concerns are ongoing:
Relevant school staff are informed, and a shared approach is agreed.
Parents and carers are brought into the conversation as partners, not as recipients of a report.
Additional support strategies are developed in collaboration with staff, families and, where needed, external agencies.
Immediate safety responses
In situations where behaviour poses an immediate risk to any person or to the site:
The activity stops.
The group is recalled using the agreed signal.
The Forest School Leader takes whatever action is necessary to ensure the safety of all participants and the integrity of the environment.
What runs through every stage
Regardless of what has happened or where in the process we are:
The natural environment is respected throughout it is a member of this community, not a prop within it.
The practitioner remains calm, curious and present modelling the emotional regulation they are supporting the learner to find.
Every incident is an opportunity to understand, adapt and grow for the learner, and for the practitioner.
Anti Bullying
Forest School is built on relationship with one another, with the practitioner and with the natural world. The community we create together, session by session, across the seasons, is one where every person is known, valued and genuinely included. This policy exists not because bullying is expected, but because we take seriously our responsibility to every learner who walks into this space.
What bullying is
Bullying is behaviour that is repeated, intentional and causes harm or distress to another person. It is distinguished from conflict, which is a normal and healthy part of community life by its persistence, its imbalance of power and its intent to hurt.
Bullying may be:
Physical: hitting, pushing, invading personal space
Verbal: name-calling, mockery, persistent teasing
Emotional: exclusion, intimidation, manipulation
Discriminatory: targeting someone because of race, gender, sexuality, disability or any other aspect of their identity
Online or cyber-related: extending beyond the Forest School setting into digital spaces
We also recognise that the natural environment of Forest School can create particular social dynamics; small groups, isolated spaces, moments away from adult sight, and we plan and observe with this in mind.
Prevention - what we do before anything goes wrong
The most powerful response to bullying is a community that makes it less likely. We build this actively and consistently:
Expectations and group agreements are co-created with learners in early sessions and returned to regularly not as rules imposed from outside, but as shared commitments that belong to everyone.
Routine is tended carefully across every session. The predictability of structure, the familiar opening, the closing circle, the consistent signal creates the safety within which learners can be themselves and treat others well.
The practitioner models empathy, honesty and care in every interaction. Positive relationships are not assumed; they are cultivated.
Activities are designed to promote cooperation, communication and genuine collaboration giving learners repeated, meaningful experience of depending on one another well.
Difference is respected and diversity is celebrated as a source of richness in the community, not a basis for division.
The practitioner observes closely and continuously noticing shifts in dynamic, changes in mood and early signs of difficulty before they become entrenched.
Reading the signs
Because we understand behaviour as communication, we approach concern about bullying the same way we approach any behaviour with curiosity before judgement. Signs that something may be wrong include:
A learner withdrawing from the group or from activities they previously enjoyed
Changes in mood, confidence or willingness to engage
A learner consistently isolated, excluded or on the edges of the group
Interactions between learners that feel unbalanced, unkind or charged
The practitioner does not wait for certainty before acting. Early, quiet attention is always preferable to late intervention.
Responding - when bullying occurs or is suspected
Our response is calm, consistent and focused on understanding and repair rather than punishment.
All concerns are taken seriously and responded to promptly; no concern is too small.
The practitioner listens carefully to everyone involved; the person experiencing bullying, the person displaying the behaviour and any witnesses without assumption and without rushing to conclusion.
Factual information is recorded where appropriate, in line with safeguarding procedures.
The person experiencing bullying is supported and kept safe. Their experience is centred.
The person displaying bullying behaviour is also supported with curiosity about what is driving the behaviour, and with a clear expectation that it stops.
A nature-based reflection exercise may be offered as part of the response process, as set out in the Behaviour Management Policy. The natural world offers a powerful medium for processing difficult feelings, restoring a sense of safety and opening the door to genuine reflection.
Parents, carers and relevant school staff are informed where appropriate and brought in as partners not as recipients of a report.
Restoration - repairing what has been damaged
Bullying damages relationship, trust and the sense of community that Forest School depends on. Our goal is not simply to stop the behaviour but to repair what it has harmed:
The person who has experienced bullying is supported to feel safe, included and fully reinstated within the group with no altered status, no lingering consequence to carry.
The person who has displayed bullying behaviour is supported to understand its impact, to take genuine responsibility and to make amends in a way that is proportionate and meaningful.
Restorative conversation; when both parties are ready is facilitated by the practitioner with care. It is never forced or rushed.
Where the behaviour has affected the wider group, the community is brought back together thoughtfully.
Follow-up and ongoing vigilance
Situations are monitored and revisited with learners over subsequent sessions; resolution is not assumed after a single conversation.
The practitioner reflects on what the incident communicates about the group's dynamics and adapts future planning accordingly.
Additional support or external agency involvement is sought where needed, in collaboration with school staff and families.
This policy is reviewed regularly in line with reflective practice and the ongoing development of the programme.
A note on the natural environment
Forest School offers something that few other settings can: the natural world as a co-regulator, a mirror and a source of genuine restoration. We draw on this deliberately and thoughtfully in our response to bullying, not as a distraction, but as a medium through which difficult human experiences can begin to be processed, understood and healed. The same environment that witnesses harm can be part of making it right.