The competitive basis of the task seemed to us to go against what each of us felt and understood about the ethos and aims of Forest Schools practice. Is Forest School the place to introduce competition between peers? What would we be trying to teach through peer competition? Is competition with peers the best way to motivate?
My thoughts and feelings come back to recognising that whilst competition can provide motivation it must also be recognised that wherever there are winners there are also losers: someone experiences success and others experience failure.
Competition between peers is not something I would consciously choose to introduce into a Forest School programme. My leanings are much more towards mutual success and achievement through cooperation.




