Scout Centre Bohinj boasts an over 60-year tradition of organizing educational programs in nature. Combined with this beautiful location, it offers excellent conditions for organizing research or educational camps, camps for gifted children, end-of-the-year trips or standard nature schools.
Through our many years of experience, we have designed the space so that it offers an ideal combination of classrooms in nature, those under a tarp, and those in nature: on a meadow, sheltered by a cool, bright forest or even on the lakeside beach.
The Forest School program at Scout Centre Bohinj offers a whole host of activities that run either in the center itself or in its immediate surroundings and topically relate to the local geographical and cultural environment of the Bohinj Valley. The scope and contents can be adjusted to the participants’ capabilities.
The central working method with the students is experiential learning (learning by doing) – the main characteristic of scout activities. The result of this kind of work is each participant’s fundamental development. The participants tie a knot to make the ladder firm; they tighten a tarp to erect a pup tent … this trains their rough and fine motor skills, observing the environment, the skills of predicting, considering improvements and communicating as a group. Through these activities, they establish a direct contact with nature and its elements such as water and fire.
The purpose of the program is to increase children’s independence through simple and more complex tasks/chores and motivate them. The program closely relates to geography, physics, math, technics and technology, physical education, and biology, as well as history, chemistry, Slovenian and foreign languages. The scout program is an excellent extension of the school curriculum and its best feature is that pupils and students can have fun and learn the theory they learned in school through practice, thus truly mastering it. This is the most we can do for them!
During their stay in Forest School, the participants learn about the appropriate behavior and conduct in nature; they discover the different ways of harnessing it today and in the future. They improve their attitude towards the environment and think about the positive and negative effects of man’s actions in nature.
The contents and activities emphasize building relationships and establishing roles in smaller groups. Group activities sometimes call for everyone doing the same thing, while at other times the roles need to be divided justly and effectively.
The participants can use the newly gained knowledge in their everyday lives, school obligations, and their free time. Based on the experiences they have gained through individual and group activities, they can also contribute to the development and changes in their local environments and communities.
The Bohinj Scout Center offers four topical packages of guided scout workshops for schools and other educational institutions:
On level two, more suitable for older participants (third triad of elementary school and up), the participants learn more advanced skills and gain new knowledge in areas such as primitive fire starting techniques, building a shelter from natural materials and crafting useful tools for a more comfortable survival (hand-make ropes, pots, utensils …). The participants also get new knowledge on the proper equipment and survival basics in difficult weather conditions.
Educational goals of the program strand:
Educational goals of the program strand:
Educational goals of the program strand:
Educational goals of the program strand:
The programs are headed by experienced scouts who have completed a leadership training, and who usually have a university education and many years of experience in organizing and guiding programs for children and adolescents. After the program is confirmed, we also introduce you to the head expert associate, along with their experience, knowledge and acquired skills.