Welcome to Forest Schooling UK

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Forest Schooling UK provides education for young people aged 7–16 with Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) needs who have often experienced disrupted schooling, exclusion or early trauma. For many, mainstream education hasn’t just been ineffective, it’s been the wrong environment altogether.

Based in Kingston, our work centres around Berrylands School, a full-time special school where learning happens predominantly outdoors, without a main school building. Education takes place in natural spaces, shepherds’ huts and small purpose-built structures, intentionally designed not to feel like conventional school. The setting is also genuinely off-grid, with water carried in and electricity generated on site through solar power.

Most young people progress into the school through our alternative provision, allowing trusted relationships with staff to be built early and carried through. Our flexible curriculum is paced to the young person, not the system, with pathways that include apprenticeships, vocational routes and GCSEs, all taken at the right time.

Forest Schooling UK exists because mainstream isn’t right for everyone. We offer a different kind of education, one built around relationships, readiness and real progress.

Our Story

Our Forest School began with a simple idea and a strong sense of purpose. One Wednesday afternoon, we opened a two-hour session in nature, not as a recreational outdoor activity, but as a safe, supportive space for children who needed something different. It quickly became clear that this wasn’t a nice extra; it was a necessity.