We Mapped Every Forest School in England. Here's What We Found.

Why We Built This Map

Parents ask us the same question constantly: does my local school do Forest School?

It's a fair question. Forest School has become one of the most sought-after enrichment activities in English primary education, and for good reason. The evidence linking regular outdoor learning to improved confidence, resilience, social skills, and emotional wellbeing is now substantial. Studies from the University of Plymouth, the Forest School Association, and Natural England all point in the same direction: children who learn outdoors regularly do better across a range of measures that matter.

But finding out whether a specific school offers forest school has always been frustratingly difficult. You'd have to trawl individual school websites, check Ofsted reports for mentions of outdoor provision, or simply ask at the school gate and hope someone knew.

We decided to fix that. Our new Forest Schools Map brings together data on 4,186 schools across 296 local authority districts in England that offer some form of forest school or structured outdoor learning programme.

What the Map Shows

The map is a choropleth — a colour-coded view of England where each local authority district is shaded according to how many of its schools offer forest school or outdoor learning. Darker green means more provision. Pale green or white means fewer programmes.

You can toggle between two views:

• Count — the raw number of forest schools in each area
• Percentage — the proportion of all schools in that area offering outdoor learning

The percentage view is particularly revealing. It strips away the population effect and shows where outdoor learning is genuinely embedded in the local school culture, rather than just being a function of having more schools.

The Headline Numbers

Across England, we identified 4,186 schools with identifiable Forest School programmes, outdoor learning curricula, nature-based activities, or regular gardening and nature clubs.

That represents roughly 17.5% of all schools — nearly one in five.

The vast majority (85%) are primary schools, which makes intuitive sense. Forest school aligns naturally with the Early Years Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 curriculum, where learning through play and exploration is already central. But a small and growing number of secondary schools, nurseries, and special schools are also offering dedicated outdoor learning.

Where Is Forest School Most Common?

The top ten local authority districts by percentage of schools offering forest school are dominated by rural and semi-rural areas:

In Derbyshire Dales and Sevenoaks, more than half of all schools offer some form of outdoor learning. These are areas with ready access to woodland, green space, and a strong tradition of rural primary schooling.

But it's not only a rural phenomenon. Urban boroughs such as Camden, Hackney, and Lewisham all have significant numbers of forest schools — often using small patches of urban woodland, school grounds, or nearby parks.

Why the Gaps?

The map also reveals where forest school provision is thin. Several large urban areas, particularly in the North East and parts of the Midlands, show markedly lower rates of outdoor learning. This likely reflects a combination of factors:

• Access to green space — schools without nearby woodland or parkland face practical barriers
• Funding — forest school requires trained leaders, equipment, and venue access
• Training capacity — qualified Forest School practitioners remain in short supply in some regions
• Curriculum pressure — in areas where schools are under intense pressure to raise academic attainment, enrichment activities can be seen as a luxury

These gaps are worth discussing. If outdoor learning improves outcomes — and the evidence says it does — then children in areas with less provision are missing out on something valuable.

How to Use the Map

The Forest Schools Map is designed for parents, educators, and anyone interested in outdoor learning provision.

For parents: Click on your local authority to see how many schools near you offer forest school. The ranking table below the map lets you compare areas side by side.

For educators: Use the percentage view to benchmark your area against similar local authorities. If your school doesn't yet offer outdoor learning, the map might help make the case to your senior leadership team.

For policymakers: The district-level granularity reveals real variation that county-level data would mask. Two districts within the same county can have dramatically different levels of provision.

What Counts as "Forest School"?

We cast the net deliberately wide. Our data includes schools that:

• Run dedicated Forest School sessions led by Level 3 trained practitioners
• Offer regular outdoor learning as part of the curriculum
• Have nature clubs, gardening clubs, or environmental activities as structured enrichment
• Describe outdoor learning as a core part of their ethos on their school website

This means the map captures both formal Forest School (capital F, capital S — the trademarked approach with specific pedagogy) and broader outdoor learning provision. We think this is the right approach. A child who spends every Friday morning in the school allotment is getting something valuable, even if the school doesn't use the phrase "Forest School."

What's Next

This is our first release of the Forest Schools Map, and we plan to refine it over time. Future updates may include:

• Individual school markers when you click into a local authority
• Links from the map directly to school profiles on What School
• Data on how forest school provision has changed year on year
• Filters for specific types of outdoor activity

If you're a parent looking for a school with outdoor learning, or a school that wants to be included in our data, we'd love to hear from you.

Explore the Map

Visit the Forest Schools Map →

You might also like:

• A Day in the Life of a Forest School Session — a detailed look at what actually happens during a morning in the woods
• Our complete Forest Schools guide — everything parents need to know about forest school, from benefits to what to wear