Hello! We’re Elizabeth and Jon Borley, parents to two stick-loving boys, and based in the beautiful South East of England.

Jon

Jon is a Level 3 Forest School Practitioner. He trained with the Sussex Wildlife Trust and has completed the relevant safeguarding training. He holds an Outdoor First Aid certificate (which is regularly updated). He is a member of the Sussex FSA and regularly attends professional development and networking days. He’s even been known to lead sessions at some of the events, because his previous work as a navigational officer and in a chandlery have given him expert knowledge of knots and ropework.

Through his work with The Practical Forest School, he leads in-school outdoor learning days and interventions. He also runs independent forest school afterschool clubs and private events like birthday parties.

Jon leads regular forest school activities for pre-schoolers and infant/junior schools in his work as an outdoor teaching assistant. He’s outdoors every day, most of the day!

Amongst his many outdoor talents, he also teaches bushcraft, camp craft and mountain biking (and is a member of MIAS), and is a volunteer with the Sea Cadets. Jon got into forest school by way of a bushcraft course at the Institute of Outdoor Learning. That course enabled him to take on a job with a local forest school provider, and from there he developed a love for the ethos and principles of Forest School. As a practitioner, he works hands-on with children from ages 3 to 16, although mostly with primary school kids.

Elizabeth

Elizabeth… well, she doesn’t much like the mud and the rain, but she loves a dry day in the forest, places with a view, camp cooking and passionately believes in the benefits of unstructured outdoor explorative play. That’s probably left over from many happy childhood memories of mashing petals and water to make “perfume”.

Elizabeth manages the website, parent bookings for afterschool clubs, the admin, accounts and everything that goes on behind the scenes. She is a member of the Forest Childcare Association.

Welcome to our corner of the internet, where you can follow our forest school training journey, and find resources to help plan and run your forest school.