Site School Partnership Program

Learn to centre the forest and the child at play in natural spaces nearby your school! 

Forest Site School weaves together the immersive inquiry approach core to Inquiring Minds Site Schools with the child-led experiences central to forest and nature learning.

Edmonton Forest School Society (EFSS) will guide teachers and students to foster lasting relationships with the land, with their communities, and with each other. Forest Site School offers a year-long professional development opportunity for participating teachers. It involves seasonal: teacher workshops, individual mentorship that supports translation for specific school sites, and site school sessions with students. Participating teachers will feel equipped to facilitate child-led, inquiry-based, outdoor learning at local sites for years to come.

Grade Level: K – 4

Contact: Brooke Madden @ siteschool@edmontonforestschool.com

Fee: *$1450.00, no bus needed
*Possibility of subsidies, pending grant funding

Capacity: We endeavour to work with 5 teachers during the 2026-2027 school year. We will consider teacher teams.

Inquiring Minds Website

2026 Application Criteria

EFSS will select 5 teachers and their classes to participate. Forest Site School will follow a seasonal rhythm instead of the conventional Inquiring Minds model of five consecutive days. Seasonal teacher workshops held online or at Gold Bar and/or Kinsmen Parks and without school students will begin in Spring 2026, and continue once per season in Fall 2026, Winter 2027, Spring 2027 (4 total). Site school sessions with the teacher and students will take place in Fall 2026, Winter 2027, and Spring 2027; each session will be one- two full days. Site school sessions will be held at outdoor locations within walking distance of participating schools. Participating teachers and classes commit to learning outside regularly in between EFSS visits.

Applicants are required to submit a proposal (maximum 2 pages). Please include the following information:

  • Teacher’s name, grade and school.
  • Why have you chosen Forest Site School? How does participation serve your larger school community?
  • What cross-curricular learning outcomes do you hope to achieve through participating in Forest Site School? Please provide specific knowledge, understanding, and skills and procedures examples where appropriate.
  • Provide a specific inquiry question or topic you will be exploring with your students all year. Expand on how participating in Forest Site School will support connections to this driving question/topic.
  • Illustrate how you will prepare your students for inquiry learning throughout the whole year including how to ask questions and use skills of observation. Be specific!
  • Various modes of journaling are an essential part of Inquiring Minds Site Schools. How will you prepare your class to journal? What strategies will you use to develop journaling skills throughout the school year?
  • How might different community perspectives inform your site school experience?

 

Please consider connecting your proposal with Edmonton Forest School Society’s 2025 strategic priorities to:

  1. Contribute to the health and sustainability of natural environments;
  2. Prioritise child-led learning and corresponding skill development;
  3. Uphold treaty responsibilities and pursue reconciliation;
  4. Nurture relationships with community members, local organizations, and industry experts;
  5. Grow forest and nature education/educator communities of practice; and
  6. Ensure accessible programming for all through equity, diversity, and inclusion initiatives.

Inquiring Minds Website

We are so grateful to our project funders for supporting us in this work: