Our story
The first documented campsites on meadows around Lake Bohinj date back to the period before World War II, to 1925. At that time, boys and girls had separate camps: the boys at Naklova Glava (today’s location of Forest School) and the girls on the other side of the lake, at Na Jami.
After the war, scouting became very popular in the Bohinj Valley. According to testimonies, scouts would have up to 40,000 outdoor lodgings a year in the 1960s. With the rapid development in the post-war era, the meadow at Naklova Glava got a central role and became the main location for organizing major scout education courses. Since 1957, Slovenian scouts have regularly organized Wood Badge courses, a scouting leadership program, at Naklova Glava. Anyone who wanted to take on a major role, has had to complete the course and in these many decades (as well as today), many generations of young people have honed their skills here; the scout center became known as the Forest School.
In its history, Forest School has witnessed many interesting anecdotes and also a few very important events.
In the summer of 1958, the Forest School Scout Centre was visited by then Yugoslav president Josip “Tito” Broz and Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser. They were very interested in inspecting the campsite and, in keeping with the old Slavic tradition, were welcomed with bread and salt.
In 1975, Forest School hosted the central celebration on the 30th anniversary of the independence and the 25th anniversary of the Scout Association of Slovenia. Over 700 scouts and guests gathered for the occasion in Bohinj. A totem was erected in commemoration of Slovenian scouting.
In 1986, after lengthy negotiations, fundraising and negotiations with Triglav National Park, construction of the scout chalet began. Construction dragged on well into the 1990s, when the chalet got its current form.
Alongside the development of the scout space and construction of the chalet, the number of scout training courses also increased. In addition to Wood Badge courses, Forest School also started organizing courses for technical staff (treasurers and people managing technical gear), scouts in charge of PR, association secretaries. They also began preparing orienteering courses and numerous other workshops and courses.
In the summer of 2016, Forest School in collaboration with World Organization of the Scout Movement organized and hosted the first international training course called ALT – Adult Learning Training, a course for decision makers and organizers at the highest level. Scouts from six countries of Southeast Europe attended the course. This set the new direction of Forest School for the future into an international scout education center that will help develop collaboration and strengthen experience exchange among scouts in the region and beyond.
