School choice

Forest school or IB Primary Years?

The difference between Forest school and IB Primary Years is mostly one axis: technology at school. Forest school sits firmly toward kept out until late; IB Primary Years sits toward built in from the start. They agree, more than most people expect, on 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.

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

IB Primary Years

Children investigate big transdisciplinary questions rather than subjects, within a framework that is specified in considerable detail. It is the most internationally portable education available, built for families who may move, and it is explicit about wanting to produce a certain kind of person — open-minded, inquiring, principled — which is an admirable aim and also a worldview.

What it asks of you

  • Fees almost everywhere, and usually substantial ones
  • Comfort with a school that states the disposition it is trying to produce
  • Tolerance for a lot of process language — the framework is heavily specified
  • A reason to want portability, or you are paying for something you will not use
Side by side

Where they differ

Forest school is the filled marker, IB Primary Years the hollow one. Widest difference first.

E3Technology at school
kept out until latebuilt in from the start

Forest school sits firmly toward kept out until late; IB Primary Years sits toward built in from the start.

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

Forest school sits firmly toward childhood is the point; IB Primary Years sits toward it should set up university and a career.

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

Forest school sits firmly toward when the child is ready, and late is fine; IB Primary Years sits a little toward early, and ambitiously.

L3Measuring it
no grades, no testsgraded and tested regularly

Forest school sits firmly toward no grades, no tests; IB Primary Years sits between the two.

E1Mixed ages
classes of the same agemixed-age groups

Forest school sits toward mixed-age groups; IB Primary Years sits toward classes of the same age.

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

Forest school sits firmly toward outdoors and hands-on is the point; IB Primary Years sits between the two.

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

Forest school sits toward the child chooses what to do; IB Primary Years sits a little toward timetabled, and directed by adults.

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

Forest school sits toward it emerges from the children; IB Primary Years sits between the two.

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

Forest school sits a little toward we can pay, and we can travel; IB Primary Years sits toward we can pay, and we can travel.

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

Forest school sits toward a guide who steps back; IB Primary Years sits between the two.

Where they agree

Usually more than the argument between them suggests.

  • 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