Natural learning
17 August 2021
Maths and spelling were a struggle for Trish Forsyth, who was disheartened not to receive more support from her teachers.
“From as early as I can remember, I wanted to be a teacher who helped learners like me. I knew exactly who I didn’t want to be like as an educator,” she says.
Forsyth studied early childhood education at Charles Sturt University and settled on primary teaching after completing her third practicum in Indonesia. Based in Yogyakarta, the CSU students taught both primary and adult classes and toured a number of schools during the placement.
Back home, and in just her second year of teaching, Forsyth was appointed principal of Rugby Public School, in a village nearly 300 kilometres south-west of Sydney. At age 21, she was the youngest principal in the state. With just 17 students, she was able to take the entire school, along with some parents, on a 10-day excursion to Central Australia. The trip sparked an interest in experiential learning that continues today.
After four years at Rugby, Forsyth moved on to senior leadership roles in Sydney, and spent a year working in Canada. Eleven years ago, she returned to rural NSW, to O’Connell Public School, near her childhood home, south-west of Bathurst.
Close connection
It’s a place where Forsyth puts her ideas about hands-on learning into action, particularly in the nearby Yarrabin forest, with which she has felt a close connection all her life.
Last year she won a Public Education Foundation scholarship to spend $10,000 to expand her knowledge of forest education.
O’Connell’s 81 students spend two days each term in the forest, bushwalking, cycling, rock hunting and the like, and say it’s their favourite school activity. The visits cover all the key learning areas and develop curiosity, says Forsyth.
A recent find of Aboriginal artefacts belonging to the local Wiradjuri people may provide a further area of study and discovery.
Officially, forest days are field trips requiring a standard risk assessment. Each child has a whistle for signalling, should they get into trouble.
“We’ve had only one accident, when a student tripped and broke her arm. It’s comforting to know that, with 80-odd kids, snakes aren’t stupid. They’ll exit stage left with all those feet trudging through.”
Start small
Forsyth says she’s grateful for having the AEU behind her when she makes big decisions to take such calculated risks.
She encourages schools without a locally accessible forest to start small.
“Visit a park for observation and exploration. Or even transform a disused area of the playground into a mini forest. Even if it’s just a mud kitchen. We’ve had one for a couple of years, where the kids run a café making all manner of mud creations.”
Forsyth will complete her forest leadership certificate this year and says she will continue to use the forest as a resource across the curriculum.
This article was originally published in The Australian Educator, Winter 2021