School Outdoors Dulwich

My son and I would both wholeheartedly recommend the School Outdoors Nursery in Herne Hill. It feels as though we have stumbled across a little oasis and is a refreshing contrast to indoor urban nurseries. My son loves the amazing variation of outdoor activities and caring kind staff. The staff are fun, gentle and inspiring. The nursery is creative and nurturing. My son loves it and tells me all about his day on the way home on the bike. What a wonderful opportunity to spend quality time outside as a child in London. Thank you.

Both of our daughters have loved attending School Outdoors Dulwich. Our oldest started when she was 3 and attended until she started school this September and our youngest daughter has just started aged 2 1/2. The staff are fantastic, taking a genuine interest in the children and the activities that the children do sound brilliant as well. They come home telling us about climbing trees, going biking at the velodrome, blackberry picking in the summer, roasting marshmallows and baking bread on the fire on colder days! We really love the setting and would definitely recommend it!

Our 3-year-old son has been attending School Outdoors Dulwich 2-days a week since September 2020. He absolutely loves his days there and always comes home beaming, covered in mud and telling us proudly about all the exciting things he has done that day. He has benefited hugely from being able to spend so much time outside. His interest in nature and confidence in exploring and climbing trees are lovely to see. He has been able to do all sorts of new activities from woodwork to different crafts to helping cook outside over a fire. The staff are warm, supportive and knowledgeable and are really interested in activities being child-led. Our son loves role-playing, and this setting has really sparked his imagination in lots of new ways. I am very happy we decided to move some of his days here, and would highly recommend it.

My son attended forest school for nine months. He absolutely loved it and always came home very happy and full of tales of what he’d been up to. He learnt so much about independent play and working in a practical way. The staff were friendly and caring; though staff turnover was high – he didn’t seem to mind. The management was helpful and approachable.

School Outdoors Dulwich is an excellent idea – a forest school in London where children can play outdoors all day, learn woodworking and how to make a fire, and build things out of what they find around them! In many ways, the execution is lacking though. The staff were excellent, for example, and developed deep and lasting relationships with our children that we all really appreciated. They did not seem to be well supported by management, however, and turnover is very high (if you missed a couple of weeks on holiday you would often come back to find 1-2 people had left). This constant flux was jarring for both children and parents. Related, the site needs some investment, especially provisions for winter when it becomes very wet, but there seems like a lack of willingness to invest in proper facilities. Reading between the lines, I got the distinct sense that this has been contributing to the turnover issue, with staff not feeling particularly supported or well looked after.

My child has had an incredibly happy two years at School Outdoors Dulwich; given that they started in 2020 during the pandemic, School Outdoors Dulwich gave my child an opportunity to have a normal (better than normal, actually) early years experience. They have developed into a confident, resilient little child with a love of nature and a sense of adventure for exploring the outdoors, which come from their time at forest school. The staff are fantastic and have supported my child and us on their journey, working with us positively when we encountered difficulties with toilet training last year. We get regular feedback on my child’s progress against early years development, and also really value the daily updates and photos. My child left to start school in September, but we will be back in School Outdoors Dulwich for holiday camp as we value this unique outdoor setting and are glad they can continue to benefit from it as they grow up.

My daughter loves School Outdoors. It gives her the opportunity to do things I remember doing as a child but are just not part of city life – picking blackberries, climbing trees, spotting wildlife, cooking marshmallows over a fire etc.
The teachers are great too, and she has good relationships with them all. They also take genuine pleasure in watching her develop and have been quick to step in when she’s needed a little more support.
I was worried when she started (in January) that she would freeze to death. However, the weather only seems to bother the parents, and she spends most of the day stripping off all of the layers we’ve grilled her to put on each morning! She comes home covered head to toe in mud more times than I can count and always seems to have had an amazing time.
It wouldn’t be a balanced review without mentioning negatives – I can think of one – on School Outdoors days, my bathroom looks like a swamp.
We are sending her younger brother to join her in January, which says it all!

We were nervous about our daughter being outside all the time, but she absolutely loves it and all the kids seem to love it. The people that work there are lovely and do really fun activities. She comes home exhausted every day from all the fun she’s had. The transition into nursery was pretty easy as the kids don’t seem to get as sick as you hear with indoor nurseries.

We absolutely love School Outdoors Dulwich! We moved to Herne Hill in May 2022, and forest school has been by far the best thing about moving here for us. We wanted our child to attend a forest school because he was prone to breathing problems whenever he caught a cold at nursery – we thought being in the fresh air could solve that, and having both grown up in the countryside, we liked the idea that this was a great natural gift whilst living in London. It has been everything we hoped for and more. The staff are lovely, the site feels like a magic little fairy den, and our son begs to go on his days off! You can tell when you see the kids, how much they are benefitting – there’s a freedom and special aliveness about kids when they’re spending a lot of time out in nature. My family have all noticed that since he started at forest school, he has grown in confidence and overall happiness. He sings their songs all the time and is constantly telling me about nature on our walks. Thank you to the manager and all!

Forest school is magical. Our son absolutely loves it here – he started when he was just over two years old and settled very quickly and loves the setting so much. Compared to indoor nursery, he has not been ill nearly as much as the fresh air really does help in all sorts of ways. The setting is absolutely beautiful – tucked away behind tons of trees and greenery, the kids get to do different things every day. The winters can be tough – more so for the adults than kids, our son was fine but the laundry and pickups are a bit more complex in the dark / mud (but this all comes with the territory of forest school). I wish there were primary schools in the area that followed the forest school curriculum because it really is amazing and our son is so happy, confident and sleeps like a dream after all day outdoors.