Forest School teaches preschoolers outdoor risks and catches on in Hong Kong

The Forest School  model has become more popular over the past decade among preschools – even in a city where people jostle for living and working space.

Such success raises a question: is it plausible to implement the Scandinavia-originated learning approach in Hong Kong’s concrete jungle?

It is “quite impossible” to directly copy the approach, according to Ngan So-fong, a senior lecturer from the Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK)’s Department of Early Childhood Education. And it has little to do with Hong Kong’s spatial limitations.

Forest School needs to be adapted against the local backdrop, the visual-arts teacher says. “I teach my students [prospective kindergarten teachers] how to find forests around the school campus and build sculptures with natural resources,” she says. “Teach the children to respect nature; then they will learn to respect other people.”

“Even though we do not have many ’forests’, look around you,” Ngan adds, pointing at a nearby shrub in an alfresco canteen at the university. That could, indeed, be a miniature forest too.

So what exactly is “Forest education”?  The Forest School Association (FSA) defines it as a long-term process of regular sessions that take place in woodland or a natural environment to foster a relationship between the learner and nature. Learners are given an opportunity to take supported risks appropriate to the environment and to themselves.

One of the most important elements of this education model – and particularly associated with early years education – is that it is play-based and child-led, Ngan says.