School woodland copse inspiration needed

[Eshmiel]

Well here’s a twist, my school is situated in a smallish woods. Not sure on exact size, maybe 2/3 of an acre. We don’t have enough room for playing fields, just a small triangular copse on a steep slope down to a river. The twist is that in a staff reshuffle, developing outdoor activities (turn that woods into a resource) might fall at my classroom door. The woods is unmanaged, full of ash dieback, downy birch and brambles . Any suggestions on where I can look for inspiration on what to do with it? Oh, this is for a school of 11 to 16 year olds, almost all of whom are boys.

Perhaps a phased approach - and one that can continue to work through the future at a pace that would suit a school, with its pupil turnover rate.

Start with clearance, maintenance and those things already mentioned by others. Longer term (perhaps as soon as one year, though) consider using it as a coppice wood - a place to grow and harvest fast-growing stuff that can be turned into a vast range of useful things traditional to coppice work. You may be able to coppice the ash - chop it leaving enough stump to grow ash wands from, which will probably have no disease in their short life required for coppice work. Hazel, willow, birch and various other rapid growers can be planted and used. How about a bit of charcoal making?

This place might be of help:

https://ncfed.org.uk/

Coppice work is relatively simple but very varied woodwork. Its also an end-to-end thing in that it includes the management of a coppice to provide raw materials of the required kinds; and quickly. The woodwork can be done with simple tools, some of which can be made (brakes, shaving horses, pole lathe, etc.) as yet another expansion of woodworking.