School choice

Bilingual / international or Forest school?

The difference between Bilingual / international and Forest school is mostly one axis: what it is for. Bilingual / international sits toward it should set up university and a career; Forest school sits firmly toward childhood is the point. They agree, more than most people expect, on who else is there and a view of the world. Neither is the correct one. What follows is what each asks of a parent, and where the difference actually shows up on a Tuesday.

Bilingual / international

Teaching runs in two languages, often with a national curriculum on one side and another on the other, in a cohort assembled from several countries. For a family that has moved, may move again, or wants a heritage language kept alive at school rather than only at home, it resolves something no local school can. The academic programme is usually conventional and demanding; the language is the differentiator.

What it asks of you

  • Fees, and usually a commute
  • Accepting slower early progress in both languages before it compounds
  • A cohort that turns over as families relocate, and friendships that go with them
  • Supporting the weaker language at home, which lands on the parents

Forest school

Long sessions outdoors across the whole year, led by the children, with real tools, real fire and real risk assessed rather than removed. It is a pedagogy rather than a school type — most children get it alongside something else — and where it runs as a whole setting, formal academics start late and the body does most of the learning.

What it asks of you

  • Kit, laundry, and genuine indifference to weather
  • Accepting a higher rate of scrapes as part of the design
  • Checking it is the actual model rather than an outdoor afternoon with the name attached
Side by side

Where they differ

Bilingual / international is the filled marker, Forest school the hollow one. Widest difference first.

V3What it is for
childhood is the pointit should set up university and a career

Bilingual / international sits toward it should set up university and a career; Forest school sits firmly toward childhood is the point.

L2When formal academics start
when the child is ready, and late is fineearly, and ambitiously

Bilingual / international sits toward early, and ambitiously; Forest school sits firmly toward when the child is ready, and late is fine.

E3Technology at school
kept out until latebuilt in from the start

Bilingual / international sits toward built in from the start; Forest school sits firmly toward kept out until late.

E2Outdoors and the body
learning happens at a tableoutdoors and hands-on is the point

Bilingual / international sits a little toward learning happens at a table; Forest school sits firmly toward outdoors and hands-on is the point.

L3Measuring it
no grades, no testsgraded and tested regularly

Bilingual / international sits a little toward graded and tested regularly; Forest school sits firmly toward no grades, no tests.

E1Mixed ages
classes of the same agemixed-age groups

Bilingual / international sits toward classes of the same age; Forest school sits toward mixed-age groups.

L1Who directs the day
the child chooses what to dotimetabled, and directed by adults

Bilingual / international sits toward timetabled, and directed by adults; Forest school sits toward the child chooses what to do.

L4Where the curriculum comes from
it emerges from the childrena fixed body of knowledge, set in advance

Bilingual / international sits a little toward a fixed body of knowledge, set in advance; Forest school sits toward it emerges from the children.

L5What a teacher is
a guide who steps backan authority who instructs

Bilingual / international sits a little toward an authority who instructs; Forest school sits toward a guide who steps back.

C2Money and distancewhat your life allows
free and local, or it is not an optionwe can pay, and we can travel

Bilingual / international sits firmly toward we can pay, and we can travel; Forest school sits a little toward we can pay, and we can travel.

C1What the family can put inwhat your life allows
school has to run without the parentsbeing in it, daily

Bilingual / international sits a little toward school has to run without the parents; Forest school sits toward being in it, daily.

Where they agree

Usually more than the argument between them suggests.

  • Who else is there. Both sit a little toward a community that shares our values matters most.
  • A view of the world. Both sit between the two.

Neither of these is the correct one

Which fits depends on what you value and on what your week actually allows — and the second of those is the half nobody writes about. The questionnaire scores both.

See which one you are already doing