Dear Members

The Trustees of YGC/FSW feel that this process has been initiated from within England, where FS is considerably less developed than in Wales and where the devolved nature of education, the Forestry Commission and other processes in Wales may not be fully understood.

In Wales we already have several national bodies which together have been instrumental in shaping the development of FS for many years:

• Forest School Wales, an independent grassroots membership organisation, has for 10 years now provided FS Practitioners with advice, support, networking, opportunities for training, and representation at regional at national levels.
• The Forest Education Initiative supports a network of active cluster groups which, together with the Forestry Commission Wales education team, all support the development and delivery of Forest School.

As a result, provision for Forest School is more cohesive within Wales than in England, and also more rooted in the experiences of Forest School practitioners.

The importance of Forest School is widely recognised by the Welsh Assembly Government which has structures in place by which it can communicate with national Forest School bodies. Wales has its own FS Training Network (from which the English one evolved) which works closely with the other national bodies (FSW, FEI and FCW). The Wales Forest School Training Network has a very strong working relationship with Agored Cymru (the Welsh Awarding Body): OCN units are only released to members of the Training Network, which helps to provide quality control of training.

By contrast, in England there is a fragmented network of clusters and local groups. Opportunities for networking and skillshare are lacking (according to our growing English membership). Rather than reflecting the needs of practitioners, the development of FS appears driven by training providers. In England, FS units are widely available, partly because there are many OCN regions, and partly because people who are not members of any Training Network are also able to write new slightly different units.

We feel that the NGB initiative doesn’t take into account what has been achieved in Wales, and by the established Forest School communities in Scotland and Northern Ireland. We also feel that the survey fails to address the complexities of setting up and running a national governing body for FS in the UK.

We note that the Welsh Forest School Training Network does not feel there is a need for a National Governing Body at present, and we agree with their concerns about the independence and impartiality of the survey and NGB initiative.

We feel that discussions about a UK wide Governing Body are misguided, and would counsel that England should develop its own national membership and training organisations which could engage in this debate alongside the long established Welsh bodies.

As Trustees we are seeking to initiate a wider debate amongst our members about the NGB initiative.

Please take a few minutes to complete the NGB survey, before September 2010, and ensure that the voices of Welsh FS practitioners are heard at this stage. There is plenty of room for extra comments. If you would like to share your comments with FSW, please copy them to info@forestschoolwales.org.uk . This will enable us to gauge your opinions on this matter, so that FSW can continue to bring the views of Welsh practitioners to this debate.

Please follow the link below to complete the survey:

www.surveymonkey.com/s/ZVVZ3RT

There are 9 questions and it should only take 10 minutes to complete.

Kind regards,

The Board of Trustees.