About Us
Badger & Blackbird Forest School
Badger & Blackbird Forest School was founded by Veronica McGuire in 2025.
It offers Forest School programmes and Woodland Camps for children, throughout the year at Lee’s Road Amenity Park, Ennis, with the approval of Clare County Council.
Badger & Blackbird also works with schools delivering 6 week programmes under the Heritage in Schools Scheme. This allows Forest School to be experienced by children of all backgrounds and is supported with generous funding from the Heritage Council.
Two Ennis schools have embedded a Badger & Blackbird Forest School programme into the curriculum for one of their classes annually.
All Badger & Blackbird activities are fully risk assessed and governed by our Policies & Procedures.
Veronica McGuire
With qualifications in horticulture and ecology, Veronica began co-faciltating children’s outdoor workshops at Irish Seed Savers Association in Scarriff, Co Clare, in 2009. It was here that she discovered a passion for working with children in nature. A wish to offer children greater opportunities for supported risk-taking and for deeper nature-connection led her to Forest School in 2015.
Veronica attended the first Forest School training to be held in the West of Ireland. She feels priveleged to have trained with inspiring mentors Elizabeth Swift and Carol Middleton, founders of huathe forest school in the UK, and respected Forest School leaders and educators. They instilled in her a profound love of Forest School as a tool for holistic development through a combination of nature-connection and skillful leadership practices.
Since completing her training in 2016, Veronica has helped to increase awareness of Forest School in Ireland. In 2017 she cofounded Happy Out Forest School with Gráinne Vaughan. Happy Out started offering regular Forest School Saturdays in Ennis, at a time when Forest School was still largely unknown in this country. Over time, the popularity of Happy Out Forest School Saturdays grew and these became a much-loved fixture at Lee’s Road Amenity Park in Ennis. Forest School Saturdays continue at Lee's Road under Veronica’s new business name Badger & Blackbird Forest School.
In 2020 Veronica became a Heritage in Schools Specialist, and was instrumental in developing a 6 week Forest School programme for Primary Schools, with the support of the Heritage Council. Today schools can participate in an authentic Forest School experience under the Scheme, with significant funding available from the Heritage Council to make this possible.
Experienced in holding a group, Veronica brings kindness, knowledge, and sense of fun to her leadership, making a Badger & Blackbird Forest School event one that every child will benefit from
Personal background
Veronica moved from Dublin to rural Clare with her husband in the year 2000 in an effort to “get back to nature”. Naive Jackeens with a lot to learn, they moved into a tiny caravan in the middle of a green field. There they spent 6 happy years living off-grid, an experience that did indeed deepen Veronica’s connection with nature. During this time Veronica and Michael began a family and 2 beautiful sons were born while still living off-grid
Today the field is a woodland and Veronica continues to be nourished by living here beneath the shelter of the trees. Witnessing the birth of this natural woodland and watching it grow and change over time is one of her life’s greatest joys.