#1: Darren Quek, Forest School Singapore
The forest has a way of teaching us without words. It shows us that nothing stays the same, that every season carries its own rhythm, and that even endings lead to beginnings.
Darren Quek has lived this truth. In 2016, he started Forest School Singapore, creating a space where children could wander, play and learn with the forest as their guide. Back then, it was something new. Nature programs existed, but they were structured around knowledge and facts.
Forest School Singapore offered something different: freedom, risk, curiosity and the chance for children to find their own way. There is no fixed curriculum. Adult facilitators set safe boundaries, but children decide how to explore. In the process, they discover weight and balance, risk and responsibility, trust and connection. The adult facilitators do not rush to correct or instruct. Instead, they stand back, ask questions and let the children reach their own realisations.
Darren often described it through three simple pillars: child-led, nature-led and context-led. “Anything that stays still doesn’t really resemble nature,” he said. “By nature, everything changes.”
Over the next eight years, Forest School Singapore grew into a community of learning and friendships, where many children first experienced the forest as something alive and relational.
In 2024, Darren closed Forest School Singapore. But endings carry beginnings within them, and now, Forest School Singapore is bouncing back to life.
We sat with Darren to hear his stories of that journey: the death, the pause, and the seeds of rebirth.
Arrow to the Heart
- Reflections create time. Emotions create space.
- You will know when it’s the right time to take a break. If there’s not enough pain yet and a lot of resistance with the decision, it’s not time yet.
- All things have a season. There are seasons for growth, and seasons for death.
- Be yourself, with the flaws and fire. They are all part of the process of becoming.
- The forest sings to us, we learn to listen.
- Work of the heart cannot be measured by money. Seek other ways of being rewarded.
- It is ok to let old chapters die; the essence is in you, you carry it forth.
- What the Earth feels, we feel it too.
Why did you decide to close Forest School Singapore?
The purpose from the beginning was to have as many children experience Forest School, and to have many people doing Forest School, not just us. When that started happening and numerous forest schools sprouted locally, especially during covid-19, we felt like we needed to obsolete ourselves.
It was also tiring, not just running the program but the advocacy and activism around it. The closing was intentional, it took a whole year and by the time we came to the burning ritual, there wasn’t any regret. I knew I am not those things I burned, and I knew I’d be okay.
What was the significance of the burning ritual for you?
We had a whole year where we did what we call a good death. The feeling is that if you have one year to do a funeral, it really gives you so much space to breathe. To let the emotion be, to stay with some, let go of some, and let others fester a bit. The whole process is so much healthier.
We had the opportunity of a year to exit and I thought that was precious. So the burning ritual was the final thing that marked the end. We laid out the documents for people to see: lawyer letters, bank accounts, old records. By then, they had lost their weight. The essence of the work lives on in people, not in these papers.
Now that it has bounced back to life, can you share more about what Forest School Singapore stands for in its new era?
The focus will be on training development and developing the capacity of communities in Singapore to be able to do Forest School of their own, within their own communities. So, it’s a lot about empowering people to start their own form of Forest School.
The vision remains unchanged. It’s still about having as many people as possible experience Forest School. What changes is my role.
You took a year away after the closing. What did you do, and what were the key things that happened for you?
For months, I really did nothing. Netflix and computer games. That rest was necessary and uplifting. But New Zealand gave me the deepest shift. I was there for 36 days with my wife, and it rewired my brain. The whole country is a forest school, and with so few people, whenever we meet someone, we feel so genuinely happy and end up greeting and conversing. Otherwise, we were talking to the animals.
It was there, watching the stars and having so much space, that I had time to distil. It made me realise that in the world we live in, time and space are such valuable elements, yet everyone feels a lack of them.
The phrase came to me then: Reflection creates time. Emotion creates space. When we reflect, we travel through time. It expands the moment. When we allow ourselves to feel a myriad of emotions, it creates space inside us and gives us the capacity to hold space for others with empathy.
This has become the anchor for how I will carry myself into the next chapter and the work I do.
What would you say to someone who feels burnt out by their passion and is going through the dilemma of taking a break?
Everyone will know, in their body, when it’s the right time. If there’s still resistance, then it’s not yet time. You have to go through the pain and struggle until the moment comes. It is necessary and part of the process. And when it comes, there will be no resistance. Then what’s next is to follow your curiosity. Where your curiosity leads you will always open up something. All things have a season. So there’s a season for growth, a season for death. You have to ask yourself “what season am I in right now?”
Looking back at your entire journey, what’s something you learnt that you would offer to a young person at the beginning of their journey?
When I meet some of the younger people, I can see their passion and energy, but not necessarily the wisdom and maturity. And I think that that should be the case, not to expect them to be more than what they are at that stage. As much as they can, they should be as authentically themselves.
When you’re 20, be 20. If you’re angry at the system, be angry. If you’re immature, be immature. That’s part of the process. Don’t try to be something else because the world asks you to. Just be yourself, and over time, you will find your way.
What was a reality you had to accept, but does not kill your hope to do something about the problem anyway?
The people involved in work with a heart, whether it is wellness, nature, education or care work, you can never measure the value of this work with money. Money itself is built on exploitation and if you use that to measure work that is not exploitative, it will never match. I look to history before there was currency to realise that it was the community, the exchange between people of what they need and the relationship that offered a sense of value and appreciation. When I felt most appreciated was when a child gave me a card with a drawing and a thank-you note. That stays forever.
This series is titled 'Humans of Earth'. How do you personally connect with that?
Human is Earth. What the Earth feels, we feel it too. And it goes further, the moon, the stars, the universe. Sometimes we touch moments of oneness, and it’s so powerful. But it’s not a permanent state. It comes and goes, like everything else.
Perhaps this is the spark Darren leaves with us: to pause, to listen, to remember that we too are nature. And in that remembering, may we find our way back, not just to the forest, but to ourselves.
Support & Engage with Forest School Singapore
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Website: https://forestschoolsingapore.com/
Email: forestschoolsingapore@gmail.com
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