A PRIMARY school is celebrating after it has been recognised as the county's first forest school.

Suckley School was awarded the accreditation by the Forest School Association in October after demonstrating its commitment to regular outdoor learning as well as having trained staff run it.

The 84 children at the school spend an hour every Wednesday in the camp - regardless of the weather - whittling, cooking, building fires and making wooden mallets.

Jo Rogers, the school's key stage one forest school leader, said: "It's very child led.

"Research has shown that children bring what they have learnt outside back into the classroom.

"They come with all these ideas when they are in there and then they get to act them out when they get outside.

The children take part in these activities from the age of four and have become so advanced, the teaching has had to be redeveloped.

Jess Nightingale, the key stage two forest school leader, said: "The children learn to make a lot of things and you can see how proud they are of them.

"It might just be sticks and leaves but they take great care with everything."

The idea behind the forest school is to allow for children to build a great relationship with the environment as well as others around them.

"The children learn to respect the environment, they learn how and when things grow and they learn how to be safe outside," added Ms Rogers.

"The children are given a supervised environment to practice these things.

"It's all done safely but the children are always challenged so they can learn it for themselves.

The children are aided in most of the hands on activities by Paul Nightingale who also spends a lot of effort maintaining the camp.

The school has said it would not be in this position without staff and volunteers.

Louise Dawes, has volunteered for ten years and continues to do so long after her son left the school.

The school continues to look to the future and is now looking to build a cob oven and hold camp outs with staff, parents and children.