Discover Bushcraft brings exciting and engaging outdoors and nature based activities to children and adults. We do wonderful exciting things such as fire lighting, shelter building, wide games, knife work, camp fire cooking and so much more. We get creative with the seasons and love foraging and tracking and getting to know the wildlife around us.
We deliver our sessions either at one of the two woodlands we use; these are around Thaxted, in Uttlesford, North Essex or at our customers’ venue/location.
We work with children, young people and adults, indeed one of the values at the heart of Discover Bushcraft is that bushcraft is for everyone. With our wealth of experience in delivering programmes we can find a bushcraft skill and activity to suit every age, ability and mood.
Alternative Learning in the Outdoors classroom to improve mental and social wellbeing for children and teenagers
We have great experience of working with a range of groups and ages including primary and secondary school ages as well as groups of young people who present with challenging behaviours or have needs around confidence, social skills and self-esteem. We use the wonder of nature and the outdoors as an inspiring and engaging environment to build confidence and skills, that improve mood and wellbeing. Please contact us for more information about this kind of work.
The ideas behind Discover Bushcraft.
We run all of our sessions with the principles of:
Be Safe, Be Kind, Be Free.
Be Safe – all of our activities are delivered by instructors who know their stuff. We teach excellent technique and follow good practice guidelines. We are very open and clear with our groups how to be safe and encourage personal responsibility in following instructions and ensuring their behaviour is appropriate for the activity. Being safe around fire and tools such as knives means we have a better time. Skills are learnt, wood is whittled and participants feel proud of what they have achieved.
Be Kind – by this we mean be kind to ourselves, be kind to others and be kind to nature. Being in the woods with a group often creates a strong sense of belonging, kindness helps create this connection.
Be Free – around the camp fire you can be yourself, we don’t judge, we love spontaneity, we encourage everyone to let their inner nature child out.
We believe very passionately that being outdoors and engaging with nature is good for you. Connecting with the natural environment is both grounding and inspiring. We believe this connection can lead to a deeper respect, love and knowledge about the natural world; we hope therefore that being outdoors and engaging with nature can be good for nature too.
Our practise works with the principles of ‘cause no harm’, we are gentle bushcrafters we are an ally of nature. As much as possible we ensure our practice causes minimum harm; whether that is sustainable foraging or using equipment and materials that are sourced as ethically as possible. We aim to minimise any negative impact.
Within our bushcraft knowledge we particularly value pre-technology skills and crafts. We enjoy learning how things were done in the old ways. These skills and crafts are how our ancestors thrived, that ultimately led us to be where we are today. Learning and enjoying these skills helps connect us to our histories and the universality of humans.
Discover Bushcraft instructors are all fully vetted and DBS checked.
