BROUGHAM Street Nursery School has recently set up its own Forest School, based in Skipton’s very own ‘Wilderness’.

The sessions are led by class teacher Dr Alison Stewart, who is currently completing her forest school’s leader (Level 3) qualification.

She said: “We have just completed our first block of sessions and they have been a tremendous success, but the omens were very good. During our first session we were visited by a very friendly robin, who has joined us on every subsequent sessions.

“We spotted the magnificent kingfisher as it flew over the beck and we saw the grey squirrel, whose image takes pride of place as the logo for ‘The Friends of the Wilderness’ community group, which looks after and manages the site”.

The plan is for all children to access forest school during the year before they start school. Dr Stewart is also the education officer for the site and encourages other nurseries, schools and children’s community groups to get in touch and use the site.

She added: “There is such a wealth of opportunities for learning and play in ‘The Wilderness’. We have built homes for animals, created bug hotels, looked for the colours of autumn and even explored an alien spaceship crash site.; all planned in response to the children’s interests.”