Forest School at Collège Champittet

Since 2020, Collège Champittet has brought the Forest School concept to our Nyon and Pully (Lausanne) campuses. The pedagogical vision of Forest School is to immerse children in nature for several hours each week as they attend class, learn and play. Based on the pedagogy of outdoor education, this open-air approach allows children to explore nature, breathe clean air, become aware of the environment, and learn new knowledge and skills.

Examples of Forest School Activities

Preschool children and primary students in Grades 1 and 2 (ages 3 to 5) develop language skills, counting skills and motor skills through outdoor activities such as:

• Finding, counting and comparing objects of a certain shape or colour

• Listening to and describing sounds in nature

• Telling a story inspired by their physical surroundings

• Observing nature with a magnifying glass, tweezers and other handheld tools

• Gathering and arranging natural materials to create letters, numbers and art

• Playing games that exercise physical balance and coordination

Primary students in Grades 3, 4 and 5 (ages 6 to 8) continue to build skills in maths, literature, geography, environmental studies and other areas through outdoor activities including:

• Writing a postcard, story or description of the natural landscape

• Taking measurements and identifying geometry in nature

• Practising multiplication and division with natural objects

• Classifying natural elements by categories, such as mineral, animal or vegetable

• Drawing a detailed illustration of a tree, leaf or fruit

• Designing a map of the surrounding area

Why Is Outdoor Education Important?

Opportunities for children to spend time in the wilderness are sorely lacking in our urban context of sedentary lifestyles. Our goal is for students to view learning as something that happens both inside and outside the classroom. By regularly taking children outdoors, we simultaneously introduce a positive habit that offers children an alternative to digital screens. Reconnecting with nature also brings lifestyle and learning benefits: outdoor experiences encourage calm, agility, better health, socialisation, cooperation, trust, autonomy and creativity.

Learning in nature is not only playful, but also nurtures a child’s balanced development. From mathematics to creative activities to science, nature is a place for learning. The teacher’s mission is to open a door for children to a new world: the world of nature. By observing, imitating and discovering the life that surrounds them, using their senses and the mind, children learn to develop a deep bond with nature and with others.

In the exceptional setting of our lakeside campus in Pully, or the natural surroundings of our school in Nyon, our Forest School invites children to exercise, explore, invent, initiate and dream – but also to concentrate, observe, marvel, listen and work.