After celebrating the end Forest School Play Project at Bowling Park with stakeholders, trainees and parents alike, we knew that we didn’t want to be away from Bradford for long. Following the end of Better Start Bradford funding, Get Out More are thrilled to announce the return of the Forest School Play Project, thanks to support from the Pears Foundation.

As we discovered throughout the Forest School Play Project with Better Start Bradford. There are some fantastic green spaces and a huge appetite to explore them. We are so excited to be back at sites like Bowling Park, Peel Park, Bradford Moor Park and hopefully some more green spaces along the way.

Young child playing in the snow

The funding, which covers two years, will allow us to continue running a range of initiatives to engage children and families in nature, including:

• Delivering Family Play sessions for families to drop in and out as they please.
• Running free Holiday Forest School style clubs through the holidays and after-school.
• Accredited Level 1 Forest School Training empowers local play workers with skills and confidence to deliver outdoor play. This will help to sustain activities beyond our involvement.
• Encouraging local communities to explore green spaces outside of their local area through the provision of trips to other areas accessible by public transport.

Hear what Annie Berrington has to say about the return of the Forest School Play Project:

“We’re delighted that Get Out More can continue our work with communities in Bradford. Our long-running Forest School Play Project enabled hundreds of 0-3 year-old children and their families to enjoy outdoor play in Bradford parks, as part of the Better Start Bradford project. The young children who took part then, are now at primary school. This new support from the Pears Fund will enable us to pick up with them, and hundreds more families, making sure that communities in urban Bradford can benefit from play in natural spaces. We’re also excited to be able to provide more free training for play workers to allow them to engage their service users in nature-based play, helping everyone to get out more!”

If you have any connections with youth centres, or groups around Bradford we would love to hear from you. Get in touch with us on [email protected]

Two young children looking at flowers