NETA – Information for account Holders/Session Leaders

Welcome to NETA: Empowering Forest School Leaders and Outdoor Educators

We all know the enormous value of Forest School and other outdoor education and we know the pressures you face as sessionl leaders. The limited time, tight budgets, lack of resources can make the challenge of advocating for outdoor sessions with clients and parents impracticle.

Many leaders find that researching and evidencing your program’s impact can feel overwhelming, especially when it’s hard to know what questions to ask or when to ask them. This is especially true when you want to see the effect of your sessions on participantsa at home and finding a way of linking feedback from parents, participants, and yourself in one handy space. Not to mention scoring and evaluating all that information, well that’s often a struggle too. We hear you!

NETA is here to help. Our automated, user-friendly webapp simplifies data collection with clear, positively worded surveys that connect responses from three sources (parents and carers, participants and session leaders) and in three time periods (prestart survey, Mid point survey and end point survey). After a simple setup the app automatically sends specially crafted emails to survey participants, collects, scores and records the results in easy to understand charts for each participant.

NETA’s visual dashboard delivers powerful, evidence-based insights to showcase your program’s benefits on five key areas: confidence, resilience, creativity, independence, and wellbeing. Saving you time and money while strengthening your advocacy. Ready to make your voice and that of your participants heard?

We have created a working prototype and so NETA is available to test and use at the moment under a product testing NDA and BETA testing Terms and conditions. By contacting us and using NETA you are agreeing to both the NDA and the BETA testing Terms and conditions.

Consent forms to download

Important information for leaders and account holders

What Does Participation Involve?

Participation from Leaders and Account Holders

Signing up for an account on the NETA protype
Setting up an outdoor learning programme
Recruiting participants and parents to take part
Collecting consent using supplied consent forms
Setting up quick and easy student profiles for each participant
Providing support
Possibly, deleting data of participants that withdraw from testing, if requested

Link to sign up for notifications about NETA

Participation from student participants and parents

First of all, participation is easy and voluntary.

After submitting an informed consent form to you.

Your participant and their parent will be invited to complete three short surveys (each takes about 10–15 minutes) each, during the time that the participant is attending your outdoor learning sessions:

1. Pre-Survey: Before the program begins, to establish a baseline.
2. Mid-Survey: In the middle of the program, to look at the effectiveness of the sessions so far.
3. Post-Survey: At the end of the program, to measure changes over time.

Questionaire links are sent directly to the parent’s email (Parent’s emails are addressed using their supplied name e.g. Dear Martha, participant emails are addressed to the participant’s name). Once completed they are submitted at the click of a button.

Find out more about the surveys,what they look like.

What equipment do I need to take part?

NETA is a web based (online) application. You will need a mobile phone, computer or tablet with access to emails and the internet. You may need a printer if you require hard copy consent forms.

What equipment do parents or carers need to take part?

Becuase NETA is a web based (online) application, parents and carers will need a mobile phone, computer or tablet with access to emails and the internet. They do not need to print or make hard copies of their responses, all they need to do is answer the questions by selecting an option on the scaleand hit submit once they are done. In future iterations of NETA, we are planning that questionaires will eventually be available in multiple languages to help with inclusion.

Why are we testing NETA?

NETA is a brand new tool and like any new tool we need to check that it works for the majority of users, therefore we (FSA) need to:

Ensure it functions correctly (e.g., surveys are sent, collected, and scored properly).
Ensure good usability for parents, participants, and leaders.
Gather feedback to refine the app before its final release.

Your insights during this phase are vital in helping us create a better, more effective tool.

Find out more about the FSA, who we are and what we do

Find out how our testing is going

Why your participation matters?

Why Your Participation Matters

Your feedback helps us:

Improve NETA’s usability for outdoor learning leaders like you.
Ensure the app delivers meaningful insights about your programme participant’s learning journey.
Show proof of change over time to funders and SLT’s
Advocate for better outdoor education opportunities with funders and policymakers.

For more details, or to feedback contact Nic, the project coordinator at nic@forestschoolassociation.org. Thank you for supporting outdoor education and helping us improve NETA!

How will your responses be used during and after our test phase?

During Testing: Data will be used to evaluate NETA’s functionality, not for research conclusions.
Privacy: Your data and your child’s data are securely stored and anonymized. Only your session leaders will see identifiable data, like names and email addresses.
After Testing: All testing data will be deleted after the testing phase or within 24 months, whichever comes first. Data submitted after the testing period concludes may form part of future research conclusions.

Find out more about the data that is collected and used by NETA

Find out more about how my data will be used in research

What can the session leader do with my data?

Your Rights and those of your participants

Account holders rights durting the testing phase

Voluntary Participation: Taking part in testing NETA is completely voluntary for you and your participants.
Right to Withdraw: Your participants can withdraw from the testing phase at any time by contacting you their session leader. You have full control of the data and can delete individual students from the survey or programme at any time.
Anonymised data: Anonymised data cannot be deleted, as the anonymisation process prevents us from identifying your data.
Consent: By using NETA and creating an account to agree to the following.
- I have used the official FSA consent forms to obtain informed consent from parents, carers and participants to input theirnames and emails into

Your participants

Voluntary Participation: Taking part is completely voluntary for your participants.
Right to Withdraw: Your participants can withdraw from the testing phase at any time by contacting you, their session leader. Identifiable data will need to be deleted immediately.
Anonymised data: Anonymised data cannot be deleted, as the anonymisation process prevents us from identifying your data.