Beyond the fence: Exploring forest preschool/school approaches in Australia

Abstract

The origins of forest preschool/school approaches are attributed to Scandinavian countries, where children can frequently be found playing outdoors in all weathers as an integral aspect of their education programs (Knight, 2013a; Willia1ns-Siegfredsen, 2012). Such approaches are linked intrinsically to Scandinavian culture and landscape, specifically in Denmark, where WilJiams-Siegfredsen (2012, p. 7) describes frilufts/iv, or the 'free air life', as a long-standing cultural tenet. While forest preschools for young children up to the school-entry age of 6 years have been common in Scandinavia for decades, only in the 1990s was the forest preschool approach introduced into the United Kingdom. Since the 1990s, there has been an exponential growth in this approach across both preschools and schools, and internationally in many countries, including Australia, Ca11ada, Japan, New Zealand and the United States (Knight, 2013b). In Canada and the United Kingdom, this growth has recently led to over-arching professional associations, the Canadian Forest School Association and the United Kingdom Forest School Association, which offer guiding principles, practical information, publications, research and collaborative potential.