We’re delighted to share some very exciting news: our much-loved Forest School in Clayton-le-Woods re-opens this January (2026). After dedicated staff training, careful preparation and thoughtful planning, we’re ready to welcome children back to outdoor learning — and we know it’s something they will be extremely excited about.
Forest School has always been an important part of who we are as a nursery. In fact, we are proud to have been the very first setting in the area to establish a Forest School, and it quickly became a highlight of the week for our children. Bringing it back now feels like a natural and meaningful step forward, rooted in the proven belief that young children thrive when they are given time, space and freedom to explore the natural world around them. Indeed, spending time in and around nature is profoundly beneficial to children.
A Natural Choice for Our Nursery & Children
Our nursery is surrounded by local parks, green spaces and natural open areas, making Forest School a perfect fit. What’s more, nature is already part of daily life here, and Forest School will allow children to experience it more deeply and more intentionally. They are naturally curious and want to touch, observe, ask questions and make sense of what they see around them. Being outdoors opens up the enormity of the natural world to them. It gives them opportunities to notice changes in the seasons, discover plants and wildlife, better understand the circle of life, and their place in the world. It helps them develop a real sense of connection to their environment, and their power and responsibility over it. Those are all things that would be difficult to replicate indoors alone.
Safety FirstThis January’s re-opening follows comprehensive Forest School training for our team, alongside detailed preparation of activities, routines and risk assessments. Safety is, of course, always our top priority. Sessions are well supervised, thoughtfully structured, and designed to support exploration in a calm, nurturing, and safe way. |
What Forest School Is All About
Forest School is a child-centred approach to learning that takes place outdoors and encourages children to explore, investigate, and learn about the natural world through hands-on experiences. Sessions are led by trained practitioners and are carefully planned to be age-appropriate for under-fives. They allow children to learn about nature, build new skills, learn to assess risks, and grow in confidence and independence.
Forest School isn’t about rushing or achieving a set outcome. It’s about giving children time — time to wonder, to try, to persevere and to feel proud of what they can do — all at their own pace.
Supporting Development, Confidence & the EYFS
Forest School offers rich opportunities for learning across all areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage. As children climb, balance, build, dig, collect and create, they naturally develop physical strength, coordination and problem-solving skills. They learn to communicate with one another, take turns, share ideas and work together, supporting social and emotional development in a meaningful context.
Being outdoors also supports children’s emotional wellbeing. Nature has a calming influence, helping children to regulate their emotions, build resilience and develop self-confidence. Whether a child is energetic and adventurous, or quieter and more reflective, Forest School offers something valuable for every personality and learning style.
Learning About Nature, Responsibility & Our Place in the World
Spending regular time in nature helps children build an understanding of living things — plants, animals and insects — and how they all play a role in the world around us. Through observation and gentle guidance, children begin to develop empathy and respect for flora and fauna, learning that all living things need care and consideration.
Forest School also supports early understanding of responsibility towards the environment and one another. Children learn that their actions matter, helping them develop a sense of stewardship for the planet and a growing awareness of their own place within it. Such early experiences lay important foundations for values such as kindness, responsibility and respect.
Forest School Beyond the Woodland
Forest School is not limited to time spent outdoors for children at Little Acorns Nursery. The Forest School approach is also reflected throughout our nursery environment, both indoors and in our garden and grounds. Natural materials, open-ended resources and opportunities for exploration are woven into everyday play, allowing children to continue their connection with nature — whether indoors or outside.
This consistency helps children feel confident and supported, reinforcing learning and curiosity across multiple areas of the setting.
Discovering Nature in Every Season
Re-opening Forest School in January means children will initially experience the unique magic of nature in winter. Frosty mornings, muddy puddles, bare trees and changing weather all offer rich learning opportunities that will inspire meaningful — and often profound — conversations. Forest School is a year-round experience, though. So, as the seasons pass from winter, through spring and summer into autumn, each will bring new discoveries and moments of wonder to the children in our care.
A Special Part of Nursery Life
For families already with us, Forest School adds another enriching layer to the care and education your child receives. For those considering joining our nursery, it’s one of the many reasons we believe our setting offers something truly special. Being able to offer Forest School — especially as a nursery that pioneered it locally — reflects our commitment to high-quality, thoughtful early years practice.
After all, childhood is about curiosity, connection and discovery — and there is no better place to begin than in nature itself. Learn more about Forest School in our ultimate guide here.
Contact Little Acorns Nursery
Clayton-le-Woods, Chorley
The whole team at Little Acorns Nursery is incredibly excited to see Forest School come back to life this January. We can’t wait to watch our children grow, learn and flourish outdoors once again. If you’d like to find out more about Forest School or our weekday childcare services for under-fives, contact us, speak to our team, or come and see us; we’ll be delighted to tell you more.
Little Acorns is a childcare nursery in Clayton-le-Woods, Chorley, but may also suit families living close by, for example, in Clayton Brook, Clayton Green, Bamber Bridge, Lostock Hall, Penwortham, Buckshaw Village, Thorpe Green, Pippin Street, Whittle-le-Woods, Farington, Euxton, and Leyland.
As the bright days of summer give way to crisp autumn air, parks, gardens, and pavements begin to fill with a carpet of crunchy leaves. For children and under-fives, autumn is one of the most exciting times of the year. With the landscape so full of textures, sounds, and colours, it’s the perfect time to get outdoors, explore, and learn about the natural world. It’s also the ideal time for them to begin a simple but deeply rewarding project: composting. In today’s post, we outline how children can approach this wonderful activity and explain its significant benefits.
Composting is a wonderfully simple, hands-on activity that provides children of all ages with an opportunity to enjoy the outdoors and connect with nature. It will introduce big ideas about recycling and responsibility in a child-friendly way, teach patience, and make good use of all those autumn leaves. Best of all, it’s fun, messy in all the right ways, and will lead to fascinating discoveries — from the changing smells of the compost heap to the tiny minibeasts that wriggle in to help the process along. Composting is also an activity that can be done with just a little guidance from grown-ups.
Spending time outdoors gathering materials will not only help children understand where natural resources come from, but it will also give them valuable time in the fresh air, where they can move, play, and make discoveries. At this age, such experiences are vital for confidence and development. And because composting is a gentle, ongoing project, children can revisit it over weeks and months, and watch as nature slowly transforms what they collected into something new and incredibly useful.
It encourages children to care for the environment and understand recycling in its most natural form.
Composting shows children how cycles work in nature — how things grow, fall, break down, and then help new life grow again. This is an early introduction to science and sustainability in action.
Head outdoors with a small bucket or bag and invite your child to gather leaves, twigs, and other natural “treasures.” Encourage them to notice the crunch, colour, and shapes of the leaves. Kitchen scraps can also be sourced from indoors, for example, apple cores, banana skins, and vegetable peelings from mealtimes.
Show them how to tip the scraps into your compost heap, bin, or tub. Explain that the pile needs a mix of “green” (like fruit and vegetable peelings and grass cuttings) and “brown” (like dry leaves and cardboard) to work properly. Young children will enjoy the action of sprinkling, layering, and patting it all down. It’s a great moment to remind them that all living things eventually return to the earth — and through composting, they can see that process step by step.
Sometimes compost can dry out. You might therefore encourage your child to sprinkle a little water with a small watering can. Every few weeks, show them how to “stir” the compost gently, for example, with a small trowel or child’s spade — this lets in air and helps it break down.
Encourage your child to check the compost regularly. Ask what they can see, smell, and feel. Over time, the compost heap will shrink and darken in colour. Your child may begin to spot minibeasts like worms, beetles, woodlice, and centipedes — all busy at work breaking down the compost pile. This is a brilliant moment to draw your child’s attention to our 
After a few months, the compost turns into a dark, crumbly, earthy material. This is the finished product, which is perfect for feeding plants. Involving your child in scooping and spreading it onto flowerbeds or into plant pots helps them see the complete cycle: from scraps to soil, and then back into growing things again. This is a lovely moment of achievement — through their endeavours, they have produced something valuable that will feed plants in the year ahead. It’s the perfect way to show children the cycle of seasons and how nature gives back when we take care of it.
By introducing composting at a young age, you’ll plant more than just seeds in the soil — you’ll plant ideas in your child’s mind. They’ll learn that waste can have value, that patience is rewarded, and that nature is full of tiny helpers working behind the scenes.
National Children’s Gardening Week arrives in late May and is the perfect time for young children to get involved in gardening activities. In celebration of the event, we describe a wonderful gardening-related activity that’s small-scale, easy, fun, and educational — perfect for little ones! The finished result is also rather magical and, once complete, lends itself to imaginative play. Today, we outline how children can make their own miniature fairy gardens. These are a great way to introduce little ones to creative gardening at a child-friendly scale. Under parent supervision* and largely using scavenged materials from outdoors, under-fives can let their imaginations run free and get creative! What’s more, the results are simply enchanting and will bring magic and a whole lot of delight to young children!
National Children’s Gardening Week begins on the 24th of May this year (2025) and runs until the 1st of June. The timing is no coincidence as it’s generally a warm week and therefore perfect for gardening and growing plants and flowers. What’s more, it also spans the half-term school holiday that most schools recognise in the last week of May.
Children and childcare staff at Little Acorns Nursery love nature. So, with World Wildlife Day coming earlier this month and Spring now upon us, it’s the perfect opportunity to release our free Wild Mammals poster. Shown in full colour and printable in high resolution at A3 or A4, it features 20 British
By mid-November, autumn is in full swing and leaves are turning a myriad of different colours. Scenes of green, yellow, red and golden trees can be breathtakingly beautiful and the air is often crystal clear at this time of year — that’s great for photos! The autumn season also brings with it a treasure trove of fascinating natural things that children can discover if they take the time to look. Indeed, an autumn nature hunt is the perfect excuse for little ones to spend some time outdoors, where they will also 
Ensure children, particularly the very young, receive appropriate adult supervision at all times. Although fascinating and fun, the outdoors holds many hazards for the unwary. Therefore, children will need to be closely monitored by a responsible adult in order to safeguard their well-being.
Children and parents, let’s go minibeast spotting! Whether you have a garden, neighbourhood park, or just a few potted plants, there are bound to be minibeasts visiting or living there. What’s more, summer is the perfect time to spot them. Spending time in 
Today’s flower-growing children’s activity follows on nicely from last month’s 
It’s possible to sow wildflower seeds from March right through to mid-October or, at a push, early November so long as snow or frost is not forecast. Those sown closer to March and April will generally flower in late spring/early summer. Those sown very late in the year will flower the following year, from spring onwards. Any sown up to and including the middle period, for example during July, should still flower in the same year — wildflowers usually bloom some 60 to 80 or so days later if they’re timed to grow in the same year as they’re sown.
There are several ways for children and families to source wildflower seeds. The most obvious way is to buy them commercially, in seed packets. These are available from any number of different outlets including nurseries, supermarkets, 
If you buy your child commercially-available wildflower seeds, the information on the packet will often say if the resulting flowers are bee-friendly, butterfly-friendly, good for pollinators, and so on. So, if you’re sourcing seeds that way, much of the decision-making criteria around which actual flowers to grow is made clear and therefore the choice is easy.
By their very nature, wildflowers are generally not very picky in regard to the type of soil they are happy to grow in. Therefore you/your child will have a greater choice of where to sow the wildflower seeds. A fairly clear sunny area is good, whether that’s garden beds, flower pots, window boxes, grow bags on a balcony, or even the lawn itself if you want a wild ‘meadow’ type lawn. Whatever the choice, it’s best if it’s somewhere that won’t be disturbed by you/the family though, as you wouldn’t want the wildflowers trampled once they do arrive.
With regard to sowing the seeds, follow any seed-specific instructions on packets in relation to timing and spacing. If you’re using self-harvested seeds or there are no instructions, simply sprinkle the seeds so they’re spaced, fairly evenly, i.e. not too densely sown. This will avoid the wildflower plants having to compete with one another once they start growing. A tip is to sprinkle from a height as this will naturally scatter them more widely. Once scattered, your child can help* to pat the soil surface down, either by hand or using the back of a tool like a spade or a trowel, so that the seeds are secured in the soil. Children can even ‘walk’ them in if they prefer. Once complete, ensure that you/your child keep the soil damp over the coming weeks. The preparation stage really is as simple as that!
Many will have heard of the Big Garden Birdwatch that takes place every year in January. However, fewer are aware of a similar activity called The Big Butterfly Count that takes place in July and early August. As well as being extremely worthwhile, it’s a wonderful activity for both children and adults to get involved in as citizen scientists. The activity helps with butterfly conservation, is educational for those taking part, and encourages families to get outdoors, closer to nature. And, as we know, 
Are you looking for a fun and educational activity for your children? Why not encourage them to do some bird spotting? Not only is it a great way to spend time outdoors, but it’s also a wonderful opportunity for them to learn about nature and develop observation skills. As we know, 
