Every Thursday morning a rabble of 7-11 year olds gather in front of the centre, kitted out nose to tail in full waterproofs, ready to face whatever the weather has to throw at them. These children have been coming since September ‘23, across the whole of the winter. A hardy bunch you’d have to admit! They are coming here to be a part of our home education group. Led by Louise Hoskins and Sanchia Bradford, two of the Apricot Centre’s mentors for our wellbeing service and Level 3 qualified Forest School leaders. 

Once everyone has gathered we run, walk and splash, sometimes fall, down the hill to get to our Social Forestry area where the first task is always to start a fire to warm ourselves and to boil the kettle for warm drinks. Everyone races to be the first one to light the cotton wool with flint and steel and then painstakingly get a fire roaring with wet sticks. They play, a rarity these days, to have children playing in an unstructured way in the woods. A couple of the older members of the group are helping to rebuild the mud kitchen, a few of them pretend to be horses and make horse jumps out of the fallen branches. A couple explore how deep the puddles are and make boats to send down the stream. They always want to go to the river, via the mud slide which has evolved over the last couple of months, (rain does have its advantages) - which is actually just a stream, where they wade through the deep mud and make dams. We stay there for a while to play eagle eye, a quiet hiding game which helps them to get closer to the tree bark and moss. They have made swings and dens. Sometimes we cook tasty treats on the fire, with flour and chutney made by the Apricot Centre and (more recently) wild spring greens, sometimes we lead a craft. Mostly we flow with what the children want to do.  Always weaving in strong lessons of kindness. Kindness to ourselves, to others and our environment. 

Our plans for this spring block of sessions to experiment a bit more with how to grow, what is important for healthy soils, why we need to look after our home and the homes of those that share our space. 

We have 2 spaces to fill for this coming block. It is open from 6 upwards and our taster sessions for this block is on the 25th April. Parents are very welcome to stay though we may call on you for fire tending duties on occasions but mostly ‘doing nothing’ wherever possible! Parents are also very welcome to drop their children off - we currently have a mix of both. 

Please email louise.hoskins@apricotcentre.co.uk for further details.