About the IFSA
Who we are
The Irish Forest School Association was founded in 2016 to support the development of Forest School learning in Ireland. In 2023, we were incorporated as a Company Limited by Guarantee. Our company name is The Irish Forest School Pedagogy Association Company Limited by Guarantee (no 746830 } We were also established as a charity under that name in 2024 (Charity no 20206667). We continue to trade as the Irish Forest School Association.
Meet the ACORNS
At our AGM in June, the following were elected to the ACORN (Committee) for 2026-2027:
Miriam Hurley
Chairperson
Miriam is committed to outdoor education, and to the Forest School mission of providing playful, inclusive learning experiences for every child in the natural environment.
Miriam has over twenty years of experience in leading communities, collaboratively working on shared values and vision.
As a former teacher in the Educate Together network, Miriam delivered workshops on ethos and equality conferences. As principal of Dalkey School Project, she supported the introduction of Forest School for every pupil and The Scaip Project.
She is currently serving as board member on the Children’s Rights Alliance and Educate Together.
Lucy Bell
Chairperson & Treasurer
Lucy Bell is co-founder of GROWing Wild, a Kildare based environmental education company, specialising in organic school & community gardens, local organic food projects, living willow, biodiversity & native habitat projects and forest schools.Lucy is an organic horticulturalist, a horticulture tutor, environmental educator and a trained Forest School Leader. Lucy is the co-author of ‘The Year-Round School Organic Garden’. Lucy is a Heritage Specialist for the ‘Heritage in Schools’ scheme. Lucy has worked as a willow artist and co-ordinator for décor as part of The Healing Area for Body & Soul and Body & Soul @ Electric Picnic since 2009 and as part of the décor collective Adorn Décor for Another Love Story. Lucy facilitates ways for people, both young and old, to connect to nature through school organic gardens and native habitat development, wilderness survival skills, wild foraging, woodland trips, living willow work and Bushcraft skills.
Ellie McEwan
Ellie McEwan is currently setting up Elemental Outdoor learning (info@elemental-ol.ie) from her new home in Co. Mayo. It is a coming home for Ellie who spent her childhood summers on her Grandparents farm in Mayo, deepening her roots, connecting with nature and creating wonderful memories. She has always been happiest in nature and now joins that with her passionate to engage and play with people, particularly children, in nature and see how they too thrive within it. Ellie’s background is in Early Years and she is a trained Montessori directress. Always the one to get everyone outside and keep them there as long as possible; it was a natural progression to start working as a Forest School leader in 2017, qualifying in 2019. Ellie is dedicated to lifelong learning and continues to access training and learning opportunities, with particular interest in mental health, trauma and addiction recovery, nature therapy and foraging. Gathered around the fire circle is her favourite place to be, in this age old tradition that deeply connects people through campfire food, good chat, song, story and togetherness.
Laura Kate Howells
LK is new to the team. She is just wrapping up her Forest School coursework with ambitions to start a Forest School camp for teenagers, where she lives in Cahersiveen.
She has worked in environmental education for twelve years, weaving stories and solutions into all her programs. Motivated by David Attenboroughs quote 'No one will protect what they don't care about; and no one will care about what they have never experienced'' She is looking forward to bringing nature connectivity into all her workshops.
LK is just settling into rural life with new additions -Sweetpea, Wellard and Sunny the ducks, Franklin, Fitzgerald and Simone the chickens and Ralph the cat. Most days (when she isn’t at the laptop) you can find her foraging around the garden trying her best to recover plants from rebel sheep, pottering around the local forest, up the mountain or in the sea.
Jennifer Dungan
Jenny has loved being a Forest school leader since 2014. She is a primary teacher and started up Forest Fridays in Dalkey School Project with one class ten years ago. After a term it grew to being offered to every child in the school. It has become a core part of the curriculum and now the older children are being forest school assistants for the younger children. Jenny loves cooking, foraging and growing food and can be found hiking and cycling around Ireland. She has trained in permaculture, community facilitation, rewilding, school gardening, creativity & change, yoga and somatics and brings these together as care for our natural world, care for our selves and care for others in Forest school.
Sonia McGuirk
Anna van den Berg
Anna van den Berg is a qualified Forest School Leader based in County Cork. Originally from the Netherlands, her work has taken many forms in a variety of settings, spanning museums, publishing and education. From building a community restaurant to co-running bookmaking projects with children and young people, these experiences have reflected her belief in the value of creativity, curiosity, and hands-on learning.
As a relative newcomer to Ireland, Anna has spent the past few years getting to know the local landscape, plants, wildlife, and seasons. Being new to a place and learning about its natural rhythms has reinforced her sense that everyone can benefit from slowing down, noticing more, and developing a connection with the places where they live. Through her work, she hopes to help others do the same while contributing to more nature-rich places and communities.
Emer Savage
Emer lives in Dublin with her family and runs Forest School sessions in Growing Roots, Sutton.
Having worked as a primary school teacher for over 15 years, her interest in environmental education and creative approaches to learning led her to train as a Forest School leader in 2020. Since 2021 she has worked with Global Action Plan Ireland where she leads the schools programme, focusing particularly on developing nature-based learning projects. Inspired by the Forest School approach, these projects run in parks and green spaces in Ballymun and other city areas. She loves supporting children, particularly in urban areas, to connect with the rest of nature and to learn in fun and meaningful ways in the city's pockets of nature. She also facilitates teacher CPD, helping teachers to reconnect with nature, and develop confidence to take learning outdoors.
She’s excited to join the IFSA Acorn to support the growth of Forest School in Ireland.
Veronica McGuire
Veronica loves the fun, freedom and connection to our wild heritage that Forest School offers to the child within!
Veronica began her career of working with children in nature at Irish Seed Savers Association and from there found her way naturally into Forest School. She feels privileged to have trained under Elizabeth Swift and Carol Middleton of Huathe (UK), in the first FS training to take place in the West of Ireland in 2015/2016. Their inspiring approach helped to shape her own vision for Forest School: a wish to offer to others that same sense of connection and belonging to nature that she experienced during her training.
In 2022, through dialogue with the Heritage Council, Veronica helped to make it possible for a six-week Forest School programme to be delivered to Primary Schools under the Heritage in Schools Scheme. She founded Badger & Blackbird Forest School and continues to bring rich Forest School experiences to children, families and schools across Co. Clare.
Veronica's journey towards this work began long before Forest School itself. In 2000, she and her husband left suburban Dublin in search of a life lived closer to nature. Together they bought seven acres of land in Tulla, Co. Clare, where they lived off-grid for six years while beginning to raise their family. Over time, the land has grown into a thriving woodland — a place that now feels ready to welcome Forest School home.
The journey continues..
IFSA Support Team
Kerry Walker
IFSA Administrator
Kerry is a passionate, Forest School Leader, Forest Therapy Practitioner and an Art Therapist based in the South-West of Ireland. Her appreciation for nature and art has brought her on creative journey’s around the world. She is the founder of The Nature Hub, a platform to offer Forest School and Forest Therapy practices to children and adults. She has been involved in Forest School for the past 5 years, running forest after school groups, toddler groups, family groups and helps coordinate and facilitate for the Galway Forest School Leadership trainings. She also runs forest bathing sessions in Killarney National Park and is currently running a Forest Therapy pilot program to support people dealing with stress and anxiety. She has training in Eco-Psychology, Challenging Behaviour in the Outdoors, Therapeutic Play skills and is certified in Therapeutic skills for children in the outdoors.
Claire Williams
Social Media Management
Jessica Bourke
Website Development and Maintenance
Honorary Life Members of IFSA
As we grow as an organisation, we decided to have a special category of Honorary Life Member of IFSA, bestowed by IFSA on members who have made a distinguished contribution to the development of our organization and to Forest School in Ireland.
Our first such honorary Life Member is Ciara Hinksman. This honour was bestowed on Ciara at our 2024 AGM on 8th June 2024 in Slieve Aughty Centre, Co Galway. Below is the citation read by Joan Whelan, our Chairperson.
Ciara Hinksman
Ciara Hinksman was our founding chairperson and a driving force in the development of Forest School in Ireland. She had a vision for a new way of being through Forest School and nature connection. With her usual tenacity she took her vision and worked hard towards her goal. Together with Jenny Dungan, she convened a meeting in Sli na Banda in Wicklow in 2016 which ultimately brought together the fledgling Forest School community in Ireland and led to the establishment of the Irish Forest School Association in May 2017.
More information about Ciara’s organization, Forest School Ireland, can be found at forestschoolireland.ie.
Joan
Our Mission & Vision
Vision
An Ireland where all children have access to Forest School in native broadleaf woodland, through which they can grow lifelong and caring relationships with nature, the land and with each other.
Mission
To support, represent and connect Forest School practitioners across Ireland, promoting high-quality, playful nature-based learning that is rooted in custodianship of the natural world.
Goals/Objectives
- To advocate for Forest School in Ireland and raise awareness of the value of nature connection and education through research, studies and policy engagement.
- To contribute to the growth and restoration of native woodland and biodiversity and secure long-term access to woodland settings through practical action, partnering with planting initiatives, and collaboration with communities and landowners.
- To support the ongoing development of safe, high-quality Forest School practice through training, continuous professional development and shared standards.
- To build strong partnerships with education providers, environmental organisations and community groups to expand access to Forest School across Ireland.
- To grow a strong, connected national community of Forest School practitioners through networking, peer learning and regional collaboration.
- To increase public understanding of the benefits of Forest School through clear communications and media engagement.