Our Story

Branching Out Forest School was founded by Toni Pettitt in 2019 when it started delivering funded projects for young people and children through the help of lcoal partners.

These projects were both kindly supported by Shropshire Hills AONB and Powys Council, in which Branching Out delivered outdoor learning sessions to young people at an organic farm to promote an awareness of alternative farming practices and soil quality, outdoor sessions for a local Youth Club that promoted young people learning about their surrounding environment, and winter Forest School sessions designed to promote outdoor physical activity in children throughout the winter months.

This was the blossoming of the company, and the demand for outdoor experiences was evident. From here Branching Out was established, and has since evolved, now regularly delivering Home Education session for 3-7 year olds, and holiday club sessions for 6-11 year olds.

Branching Out will always endevour to stay true to the initial roots of the company, and seeks to continue to work with partners to deliver sessions that are open and equal to all - both financially and physically. We believe passionately in delivering sessions that raise an awareness of nature-appreciation and nature-connectedness and believe that all children and people have a right to this. We want all children and individuals to feel more equipped in knowing how they can manage their own physical and mental wellbeing with the use of nature so they may feel more in control of their own future, and feel more passion and motivation in protecting our land to help ensure a sustaiable future for our environment. At Branching Out, we have an understanding that this may be accomplished in multiple ways, and we utilise different teaching practices that encompass a ‘harmony’ approach towards the land, enviornment and nature, often drawing a cyclical link between the different elements to help emphasise the connectedness that is found throughout the world. This connectedness has the power to deepen know

Please check back to the website regularly for updates on any upcoming partner-funded projects.

Notes from Toni…

“I feel incredibly fortunate to have had this career evolve naturally from my own interests and passions. I grew up in London and enjoyed nature, but didn’t realise how disconnected I was until we moved to rural Herefordshire when I was 13. It took me a good 5 years to get to grips with the natural world around me - and by then all our friends were wanting to head to the city! Not me, I returned after travelling and university and continued the rewilding-myself journey. My husband, Rudolf, and I bought our woodlands in January 2014 back when we were excited youths and we have never looked back, and I feel like I have a fresh childhood every spring when I descover how many new things there are that I don’t know the darnest about and make it that year’s challenge to find out!

Through some volunteering I was doing in 2015, we had various groups come to our woodland and I so loved passing my enthusiasm onto children and adults. From this, Shropshire Hills AONB very kindly funded me to complete my Social Forestry qualification, and this was a huge stepping stone in which more projects emerged. I then co-founded Knighton Woodland Tots CIC (a community woodland Forest School) in 2018 and completed my Forest School qualification. I have never looked back, and have busied myself in home education groups, 1:1 sessions with young people with behavioural issues, holiday clubs, private family sessions, specialised referrals for theapeutic intervention, parent and toddler groups, schools - you name it!

“Personally, my passion lies in bringing an alternative form of education and outdoor experiences to enrich people’s lives, where we focus on wellbeing as our primary education, and achievement as the secondary. I inwardly resent the testing procedure of our current schooling system, wanting instead for children to feel valued for their strengths, not that they need to improve on areas where their strengths perhaps do not lie. We should celebrate our differences!

“I strive to provide as many funded projects as possible to people so more people have these experiential opportunities that can spark a huge change in life style where thay can embrace creativity and imagination, and experience a world where there aren’t rights and wrongs, just exploration of ideas. I believe if we can connect to the world around us in such a way, we also have a higher chance of connecting to the people around us. From here a sense of wellbeing blossoms - and so can self-belief and self-confidence. This, and a sense of fun and exploration, can only be a positive concoction for long-term mental and physical health.”