Forest Schools Full Of Whinge and Wonder

As someone who never saw a squirrel until she was 19, walking down a leafy lane is never taken for granted. Now kids from my neck of the woods will be up to their necks in the woods and I applaud it.

They will spend two days a week getting scruffy with nature. I was born on Tyneside and my two mile walk to school was pavement only, with a few, straggly, privet hedges the only green I saw along the way.

Forest schools, big in Denmark, are now coming to Benwell, one of the poorest parts of Newcastle. Memory suggests they may have to bus the 4 to 11-year-olds to the woods. Once there, they will spend six hours, two days a week, climbing trees, chucking feathers about and messing with leaves and twigs. The rest of the time they must learn other stuff in ordinary classrooms.

For the average whinging four-year-old, with frozen hands and chapped cheeks, six hours may be too long. It would have been for me. The winds blow hard and rain falls horizontal on Tyneside. Spring comes late. Still, I would have seen a rabbit, other than the one kept in a hutch at the bottom of our council house garden. And an acorn. A fircone. Or singing silver birch. So bring it on and let them whinge.

Life on Tyneside takes an unusual turn in my book Devil Deal, by Liz Freeman, on Kindle or with the free Kindle app. Geordie humour, topped off with sex and suspense , it's getting good reviews and is priced at £1.53.