Barter Town is in full swing now, we begin each session with a review about the previous week, a town meeting if you like. What went well, what needs prioritising, what issues can be worked through. This gives the children time to reflect and to ask other villagers for advice. It has been interesting to see how the children have changed their opinions throughout the process. In the first lesson we had a few children that were determined to be “disruptors” or “marauders” as they called themselves, only focused on stealing and pillaging. The rest of the class came together as a collective and vetoed this kind of behaviour, saying it could destroy their ability to create any kind of settlement. They also discussed contingency plans that may need to be in place if the marauders did not abide by the rules. Interestingly these marauders quickly changed tack and became really invested in the village construction, they then showed themselves to be natural leaders that were very protective of their village site, and also became arbiters of peace negotiating and bartering with other groups to reach cohesive harmony. These sessions link into the Year 6 topic of Peacekeepers.
Over the weeks, as some children dipped out of being fully engaged or invested, they were coaxed back into teams by others. This week saw the formation of some defensive alliances, code words were devised as a way of communicating danger, a holding cell was introduced. This week if anyone was persistently not following the rules of the settlement they were taken to the holding cell and guarded until they had hopefully learned the error of their ways. If they then re-offended they were helped into a new role where they could be rehabilitated. They were put to work, under the guidance of Bob, in the raised beds to prepare them for crop planting. This worked well giving them a simple and immediate focus and made them feel that they could contribute. With the hope that they could the be brought back into the groups eventually.
Meanwhile fences were being finished, shelters were made more robust, boundaries became more defined and fire sites were located. Photographs were taken this week by the Barter Town photographer who was self appointed but received a huge amount of praise from the class for really capturing the things they felt were most important.
The Long-Term Principle: Forest School is a long-term process of frequent and regular sessions in a woodland or natural environment, rather than a one-off visit. Planning, adaptation, observations and reviewing are integral elements of Forest School.
Article 38: We all have right to be protected from war and violence.
