Fire and tool safety at forest school: a practical guide

Published: 2 June 2026 · en-GB

Why fire and tools belong at forest school

It's tempting to think the safest day is the one with no fire and no sharp edges. But forest school is built on supported risk-taking: children learning to handle real consequences in a held, well-prepared space. A child who tends a fire, whittles a stick or saws a round of wood is learning focus, patience, respect for danger and pride in a real skill. Those are the very things a screen-bound childhood is short of.

The job of the leader isn't to remove the risk. It's to make the benefit worth the residual risk, and then to manage that risk down to a level everyone is comfortable with. Good fire and tool sessions are calm, unhurried and tightly held. The structure below is how you get there. None of it is a substitute for proper accredited training or for your own setting's risk-benefit assessment. Treat it as a practical checklist that sits alongside both.

Setting up a safe fire circle

Choose your fire area before the children arrive, on bare earth or a fire bowl, clear of low branches, dry leaf litter and roots, and sheltered from strong wind. Mark the circle so everyone knows where the boundary is. Set seating (logs or stumps) a good arm's-and-a-bit back from the flames, with a clear "no-go" zone immediately around the fire and a single gap that acts as the way in and out.

Before you strike a spark, have water to hand (enough to put the fire out, not just dampen it) plus a fire blanket and a bucket of sand or soil. Heat-resistant gloves live by the fire for anyone tending it. Agree how children move around the circle: walking, never running, and always behind the seated ring rather than across the open side. The fire is never left unattended: an adult stays with it from the first spark until it is fully out. At the end, douse it, stir the ashes, douse again and check that it is genuinely out and cold to the touch before anyone leaves the area.

Introducing tools: ratios and ground rules

Tools are introduced gradually, matched to the children's age, experience and the tool's bite. Peelers and small knives might be worked in a small supervised group; loppers, bow saws and bill hooks are higher-consequence and are often run at close supervision, with the sharpest tools (like an axe) used one adult to one child, or adult-demonstrated only. Know your setting's policy and stick to it.

Every tool session opens with a tool talk: name the tool, show how to carry it (blade down, edge in, sheathed in transit), how to pass it (handle first, or set it down for the other person to pick up), and how to use it safely. Establish a safe working area (sometimes called the blood bubble) by having the child sweep an arm in a full circle holding the tool; no one else comes inside that space while the tool is in use. Cut away from the body, keep the supporting hand behind the blade, and work from a stable kneeling or seated position. Tools are sheathed or put back in the tool roll the moment they're not in active use, never left lying in the leaf litter.

The kit and PPE checklist

A practical baseline to have on site every fire-and-tool day:

• Heat-resistant gloves for fire tending, and a cut-resistant glove for the supporting hand where your policy calls for it.
• A stocked, in-date first aid kit appropriate to outdoor and woodland use, kept where everyone knows to find it.
• Water to extinguish the fire (more than you think you'll need), a fire blanket, and a bucket of sand or soil.
• A burns dressing or clean water for cooling a burn, and a way to keep someone warm if they go into shock.
• Sheaths, tool rolls or a lockable tool box so blades are covered in transit and stored out of reach.
• A counted inventory of every tool: a sharps count out at the start and back in at the end, so nothing is left in the woods.
• Sturdy footwear, tied-back hair and no dangling cords near the fire, and drinking water for the group.
• A charged phone or radio and the means to call for help, plus the grid reference or what3words of your site.

Risk-benefit assessing fire and tool use

Fire and each tool should each have a written risk-benefit assessment: the benefits set against the hazards, the control measures you'll use, and the residual risk you've judged acceptable. Stack the relevant assessments onto the session so they're actually present on the day, not filed in a drawer. See our guide to the risk-benefit assessment for how to write one that reads as a genuine professional judgement rather than a tick-box.

A written assessment is only half of it. On the day you add a daily and dynamic check: is the ground too dry for a fire, is the wind up, is this particular group calm and ready, has anyone arrived unsettled? Dynamic risk assessment means staying alert and adjusting (pausing tools, moving the circle, or scaling an activity back) as conditions and the mood of the group change through the session.

What to do if something goes wrong

Even a well-run session has the odd nick or scald. Have a clear plan: stop the activity, make the area safe (down tools, control the fire), and give first aid straight away: cool a burn under clean running water for twenty minutes, apply pressure to a cut. Know who the appointed first aider is and where the kit lives. Anything beyond a minor injury means escalating: calling for help and getting the child to proper care.

Afterwards, record the accident while it's fresh: what happened, the injury, the first aid given and any follow-up. Then review: was a control measure missing, did the ratio slip, should the assessment change? Honest review after a near-miss is how a setting gets safer over time, and it's exactly the evidence an inspector or insurer will want to see.

Logging it all on the day

The admin around fire and tools is where things slip: a saw left in the grass, a fire not quite checked, a count never done. The Forest School app takes that load off you. It reconciles every tool issued and returned, so you can see at a glance whether anything's still out; it runs the fire through its checklist from lit to out and cold; and it warns you if anything's unaccounted for before you leave site. It all works offline in the woods and syncs when you're back in signal, so the day's record, sharps count and fire sign-off are done before you've packed the car.