Forest school and forest education – Napkori Erdőgazdák Zrt.

Napkori Erdőgazdák zRt.

The forest school and its surroundings

Our certified Hungarian forestry school, which has been included in the Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County depository, is located in the heart of Nyírség, 15 km from Nyíregyháza, on the edge of the village of Napkor, in the Harangod forest, from which the school got its name. The forest offers study and relaxation all year round in a beautiful, tranquil environment, in a forest planted in a mosaic structure. Professional, planned forest and wildlife management takes place in these forested areas. This is supplemented by research programs (Robinia breeding, and tree plantations for firewood and timber). As well as being an educational institution, the forest school also provides a public good. It functions as a hunting lodge, and our aim is for it to serve as a forward-looking example of sustainable rural development in the region.

The Harangodi Forest School was established in 2005 by the Napkori Foresters’ Cooperative with the aim of introducing visitors to the people living in Napkor, their traditions, and the Harangodi forest with its flora and fauna. The forest farmers operate the forest school in cooperation with the Eötvös József Vocational Primary School and High School of the Nyíregyháza College.

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The forest school has a 40-seat dining room, equipped with multimedia devices, which can also be used as a classroom for indoor group sessions. There are also two 16-seat rooms in the attic for doing activities where indoor group sessions can take place separately. We also have a well-equipped workshop-cum-library that supports the forest school’s events and activities.

We have a covered, open-air classroom with a capacity of fifty people. It is a bower with an integrated oven, where visitors can bake homemade bread as part of the school program.

Our forest educational work is also served by a petting zoo, a grass football pitch, a one-hectare arboretum with a wooden funeral stele, a two-hectare educational forest, and a small lake with a tree of life.

The forest school and all its infrastructure is owned by Napkori Erdőgazdák Zrt., which also runs the school. Participants in our events can stay in the forest school building, which is a high quality ecologically and biologically designed log cabin built using Transylvanian techniques. The building has en suite bathrooms, and has heating and air conditioning. The bedrooms and indoor activity spaces, as well as the dining room, bathrooms, kitchen and service rooms are all located in one building.

For children, there are four rooms on the first floor, each with four bunk beds, bathrooms and toilets. There are three comfortable en suite double rooms on the ground floor for teachers. We can accommodate 38 people in total (or 40 people with two extra cots). Our accommodation is classified as a category “A” youth accommodation and camp.

Meals are served in the forest school building. The weekly menu is compiled by the Napkelte Panzió, taking into account the ages of the children and the principles of healthy nutrition.

"THE FOREST TELLS A STORY" – EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES AT HARANGOD FOREST SCHOOL

Our forest school welcomes primary and secondary school classes with a colourful and varied spring, autumn and winter event calendar. Every summer, we organize various thematic camps, giving kids the chance to have fun and learn during their summer holidays. Camp themes include sports, foreign languages, nature studies, ornithology, visual arts and preserving traditions. The goals of the forest school events and activities include environmental education, natural history earning, the development of abilities, skills, and knowledge, the active acquisition of knowledge and experience, and lifestyle orientation. The children participating in the events can learn the basic of forest and wildlife management and the associated traditions, as well as the centuries-old relationship between humans and the forest. They will also learn how to behave in the natural environment and how to treat it with respect.

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Features of the forestry school events and activities:

We offer a diverse set of activities primary school (lower and upper) and secondary school students. We use age-appropriate methods and materials, and more than half of the activities are held out in the forest, weather permitting. We focus especially on forest and wildlife management, the Harangod forest itself, the sandy grassland and the lake as a habitat.

The goals of the forest school events and activities include environmental education, natural history earning, the development of abilities, skills and knowledge, the active acquisition of knowledge and experience, and lifestyle orientation and health education. The activities are designed to keep the children active and to engage them as much as possible, which allows them to discover the environment on their own.

We operate all year round, with forest school events and activities during term time, and with forest and other thematic summer camps during the summer holidays. We provide a complete forest school service, from meals (five or three times a day), accommodation to a full complement of activities (instructors, tools, materials, infrastructure and classes). We host 25-30 groups, or 700 to 1,000 children, every year in five-day and three-day events.

I. Features of the program:

It builds on the characteristics of the Harangodi forest, the sandy grassland and the lake habitat.
We especially emphasize the exposition of knowledge about forest and wildlife management.
More than half of all activities are run out in the forest. These are based on spatial and temporal orientation, as well as meteorological knowledge.
The activities have been developed for primary school (lower and upper) and secondary school students, with the methods and material used being suitable for each of these age groups.
We adapt the activities to the weather and the seasons.
There are five-day and three-day events for all the age groups.
Project-oriented.
The activities are designed to keep the children active and to engage them as much as possible. We guide them in exploring the environment on their own, discovering problems, discussing them and finding solutions.
We created the entire program in the spirit of forest education, environmental education, environmental awareness and sustainability