

Choosing the right school
Choosing the right school for your child means considering different educational approaches and what they offer. We hear a lot about “alternative education”. At the Williamsburg Forest School, we see our style of education as the most natural and essential, developmentally appropriate, and flexible to support individual learning styles and passions. Based on Montessori and Reggio-Emelia approaches, we curate experiences that teach to the child’s interest and potential. We support mastery through project-based learning where essential skills and understandings prepare for higher level thinking. We inspire our learners for a future of creative expression, scientific thinking, cultural awareness, and empathetic stewardship.
Learning Philosophy
Like a young plant, a child’s natural curiosity blossoms in the right environment. We allow children to explore, question, and master concepts at their own pace, in their own way —leading to a lifelong love of learning. We also believe in a structure that allows freedom with responsibility in order to accomplish academic and social goals
Conventional Education
One-size-fits-all curriculum – Every child in the same grade is expected to learn the same material at the same pace.
Fixed time for each subject – Ready or not, the bell rings, and it’s time to switch topics.
Whole-class instruction – One teacher lectures to the entire class at once.
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Siloed curriculum – Concepts are often taught in disconnected subject-specific classes.
Forest School Education
Personalized education – Children progress at their own pace of mastery.
Uninterrupted work periods – Blocks of time allow deep focus, creativity, and engaged learning.
Individual and small-group
lessons – Teachers give lessons when a child is ready, observing for the right moment to offer new challenges.
Interdisciplinary curriculum - Because life’s experiences are not neatly grouped by subject or topic, we look at classroom experiences and our curriculum in the same way. Interdisciplinary learning is the basis of our work in order to form deep and important connections.
In the Classroom
The classroom should be a place where children feel safe, creative, and independent. It should inspire every child with hands-on materials and invitations to discover and explore as learner and leader. While we value our indoor spaces, we cherish the value of nature’s rich and varied classroom to ensure a healthy physical, emotional, intellectual, and social balance.
Conventional Education
Segregated by age – Regardless of readiness or interest, children are grouped by birth year.
Worksheets – Work often relies on rote memorization, stopping at theory rather than offering authentic hands-on experiences for deeper learning.
Sitting at Desks – Children remain seated for much of the day.
Silent – Collaboration and social interactions are discouraged during class time.
Forest School Education
Mixed-age classrooms – Younger students learn from older peers, and older students develop leadership skills. And it works in both directions!
Hands-on – Children use carefully prepared materials, many of which are nature-based, to solidify abstract concepts.
Freedom of Movement – Because independence accompanies responsibility, children move about freely, choose where they work and what they will learn from, and who they work with.
Murmurs of satisfaction – Silence is part of learning, but not the main part. Cooperation and collaboration foster learning. This is realistic in the adult world, and it is encouraged in our classrooms.
Independence and Growth
True satisfaction and success come from within. Instead of relying on external motivations like grades or rewards, we nurture self-discipline, confidence, and intrinsic motivation by empowering passion and a sense of self-worth. These habits become mindsets that lead to learning beyond the classroom. We DO provide feedback and self-reflection so that learners understand what and how they are learning. We document their journey’s as they make their thinking visible.
Conventional Education
Learning application – Learning opportunities are often disconnected from authentic applications that build lifelong skills.
Mastery – Indicators stop with formal tests and quizzes that provide just one part of mastery and growth. Curriculum mapping does not account for individual pacing.
Behavior management – Rewards and punishments are the attempts to motivate.
Little emphasis on social-emotional growth – Much emphasis is placed on accomplishing a teacher-directed curriculum geared for content-based achievement tests.
Forest School Education
Education for Independence – Children learn practical life skills, develop genuine self-esteem, and work from confidence, all the while using an emergent and standards-aligned curriculum as a learning platform. And they learn to function in community, because that is what we do as adults!
Mastery Assessment – Mastery is assessed by performance and observation. Tests are just one part and are used to prepare the child for demonstration of certain content and skills. Tests do not form the sum of mastery in our project-based learning environment. Children move on from lessons and work when they are ready to accept increased levels of rigor and challenge, keeping in mind what is developmentally appropriate.
Self-Discipline – Children learn about themselves as learners and humanitarians, operating within their community to motivate and master themselves and support the journey of others. They progress from seeing consequences to recognizing contingencies in their choices.
Grace and Courtesy lessons – Lessons on conflict resolution and social norms are a regular part of our day and built into our interdisciplinary curriculum.