Forest School themed Summer Camps 2023
Greetings!
We are extremely excited to be returning with our Forest School themed Summer Camps at Castletown House!
We will be offering 4 days of time in nature, play, woodland crafts, den building, rope work, nature crafts, mud area, make and create with tools, we also play games to increase our nature connection, these sessions are underpinned by our ethos which is child led- and choice based, to allow for the holistic development of the child and to facilitate getting kids back to nature, in all weathers.
The dates of the camps are:
Camp 1: Tuesday 11th July – Friday 14th July 2023.
Camp 2: Monday 24th July – Thursday 27th July 2023.
Camp 3: Tuesday 8th – Friday 11th August (Monday 7th August is the Bank Holiday weekend)
(Pick one when booking)
Time: 10.00am to 2pm
Age: 5 to 10-year olds
Location: The Pinetum (beside Castletown House East Wing), Castletown House, Celbridge, Co. Kildare
Cost: 160e for the 4 days.
If you have any questions, please email me at lucy@growingwild.ie.
NB. If you have siblings who want to come on the camp, send me an email and I will give you a code for 10% discount.
NB. The age range is from 5–10-year-olds, I cannot foresee what the age range will be there maybe lots of 5 and 6 year olds, so make sure your child knows this if they are in the older age category, it just depends on who books in!
A bit about Forest School:
This summer camp is a Forest School – themed summer camp. This will be run following the ethos of forest school, which is about choice based and child led play, it is not an activity-based summer camps, though we will be running lots of different activities over the week, forest school allows space for the children to direct the activities that they want to do, and we will offer different crafts, skills with tools, wanders into Castletown estate among many other activities. Forest School allows children follow their own needs and interests while also connecting to nature in an informal setting. If you are looking for a product-based activity-based camp, this is not the camp to attend.
Forest School is based around allowing children spend quality, recurring time in nature, which allows for the holistic learning and development of the child. Forest School is child-led and designed to develop the children’s relationship to themselves, each other, learning and nature in a safe way. Each child will engage with this in their own way and our aim is to support that as forest school leaders. This is not a bushcraft or activity led programme, it is directed by the needs of the children and directed by what they want to do.
A bit about Growing Wild:
Lucy Bell has over 15 years’ experience working with children in the outdoors and is a highly experienced Forest School leader, who has run Forest School throughout Ireland for over 10 years. Growing Wild has its own Public Liability Insurance, the facilitators are garda vetted and trained in REC3 first-aid.
A bit about the facilitators:
Georgina Kemmy has been working in Forest School for the last 3 years and is an experienced faciltator with children and young people in outdoor settings. She runs her own Forest School, Wild Kids Forest School in Kildare town.
You can see our Health & Safety Statement and read our risk assessments & see the garda vetting here.
Check out more on what we do here:
With many thanks for the support from Castletown House, who have kindly allowed us to use their woodland. Check out more about Castletown House here: http://castletown.ie/
If you have any questions, please email me at lucy@growingwild.ie