Genevieve Ong : Chronicle of my Journey into Forest School

I’m Genevieve Ong Yunting · 王韻婷, fourth-generation Chinese Singaporean. 

Between 2020-2024, I’ve logged over 1000 hours of Forest School Singapore coaching and training. What began as supporting the innate capacities of children in weekly sessions became a reorientation of how I move through the world—and eventually, a practice I inverted to galvanize strangers in the city-state of Singapore.

For 600 days (2024-25), I co-created multitudes of opportunities for strangers to return repeatedly to Pearl’s Hill Terrace – a conserved building in Singapore I worked to delay redevelopment of. 

The invitation: to continually practice the art of conversation about things they might not otherwise express. This work–bringing Forest School principles to urban adults—seems far from coaching children in Nature. But it’s the most faithful expression of what my time in Forest School Singapore has revealed of me.

Before-FSS

I had limited experience outdoors in Singapore, small social circles, and a narrow understanding of how community and society actually works.

a glimpse of my life pre-FSS, and how I inverted my practice:

The Stranger Space: A Year of Growth, Community and Courage | Genevieve Ong | TEDxYouth@ACJC

TEDx x Youth ACJC Anglo-Chinese Junior College, 7 March 2025 

What my FSS practice has reinforced for me thus far

3 themes, 6 anecdotes

1 – FSS isn’t just “a walk in the park”; it’s a brave space for developing the life skills of democratic participation

What attracted me most as a newcomer to the 2020-FSS environment:

The core decision making process that extended to children and coaches alike – decision by consensus – be it where to go as a class each session, or adjustments as a coaching team.

1.1 The first FSS coach I met in-person — Koo Huiying aka Coach Hungry

On my first attachment, I witnessed how Coach Hungry handled a situation with a tween in a manner that deftly acknowledged his personal circumstances, and also held him accountable for his behaviour around peers/children with less power. 

That set the tone and array of possibilities for me: 

a/ that there was a role for me to be a caring adult in society, and 

b/ I could start with the school where the refrain was “it takes a village to raise a child”.

1.2 The Squirrel Sunday Reversal

In my first semester as core coach, my first team – the 2021 Sunday Squirrel coaches – reversed a management decision to close the Sunday class during a biannual phase review. Alongside coaches Angela and ET, who also advocated against closure, I experienced the empowering impact of what we held space for the children to be able to do each session.

In sessions, even one child who stood firm could shift a group decision by drawing others to their perspective. The same held true for adults: core team coaches could challenge management plans through the same consensus framework. I was enamoured by this consistency in both the child and coach experience. At Forest School Singapore, the majority would not always win by default.

2 – Comprehending how your position in the ecosystem impacts young lives, arises from consistent presence on the ground across contexts

“This is my life now!”

An exclamation to no one in particular, while perched in a tree she ascended on her own. Participant for a FSS project with The Facilitator’s Project in June 2021.

Amongst many other programmes, The Facilitator’s Project runs monthly Forest Walks for children and teens in transition shelters.

June 2021. The nation was cycling through rounds of Circuit Breaker lockdowns and Heightened Alerts. Forest School Singapore’s 3-day camps sold out within 13 hours that year. When sessions could run, families were eager to get their children outdoors.

As ground coach, it was a dynamic environment for learning and stretching my capacities. Back-to-back camps in monsoon season, thunderstorms rolling in mid-session. Rookie parents oscillating between anxiety and relief, taking it out on the staff (me) at times. Children vibrating with pent-up energy, required to stay 1 meter apart while I tried to honor their myriad curiosities and propensity to connect with one another. It was exhausting, no matter how much I believed in the value of FSS.

Then one cloudy afternoon, during a session, a child scales a tree on her own, finds a perch, and declares to all beings within earshot,

“This is my life now!”

My weariness instantly dissolved. Hearing this organic, unsolicited comment from a child in a transition living situation – in a time when she likely most needed Forest School – I remembered why I had 6 months prior, decided to immerse myself in FSS.

It remains a privilege to be part of the team safeguarding time in the Forest for this particular child in a climbable tree. Moments like these are precisely why I remain a steadfast part of the movement kickstarted by Forest School Singapore.

3 – FSS cultivates transferable ways of being and resilience; our value does not always come from doing more

The self-directed learning as a Forest School coach extended far beyond weekly sessions:

3.1 as a Playmaker with Playeum 

I applied FSS’s ‘hands behind, lips sealed’ approach in indoor primary school settings. Fellow play facilitators were intrigued enough to ask about it during debriefs — proof that these practices could translate beyond outdoor contexts.

3.2 Dec 2023: My first overseas trip post-pandemic to Aotearoa (New Zealand)

Hiking the Tongariro Alpine Crossing – a 19.4km day hike across two active volcanoes – I realized my best life preparation had happened on homegrounds. The stamina and patience accumulated while moving at the children’s pace, through all-weather conditions, had prepared me for journeying with adult strangers all seeking to challenge themselves in Aotearoa (Land of the Long White Cloud).

3.3 Q1/ 2024: Deep Time Walk – the format of the walk: between every station, you have a 5-7 min chance to interact with another participant. During the walk, it was a breakthrough to realise I was able to meaningfully engage with about 20 other adults from diverse backgrounds over the subject matters of the Deep Time Walk. Just by referencing my lived experiences through over 3 years of Forest School sessions. A far cry from my days when I used to have such crippling social anxiety, I’d cry on the bus while enroute to meet my friends.

My FSS Portfolio

I worked across FSS’s full spectrum of offerings:

weekly sessions, holiday camps, overnight hikes, full-day camps, projects (termly/one-off) with preschools, secondary schools, kids’ clubs and community centers. I attended every coach training available, sometimes attending multiple versions because it’s simply good forest sense to do so. You never experience the same training twice.

I explored alternate locations (Alexandra Forest) on my own before taking it to the rest of the core team. My weekly Squirrel class piloted the parent volunteer initiative, which was extended school-wide the following year.

At my peak coaching intensity, I led four sessions weekly—two under FSS, two with a private kindergarten. I deeply enjoyed this pace and rhythm that 4 sessions/week afforded me: as a source of modest income, a wellspring of learning and an experimental space for me to test out new approaches with a ready group of young learners. Empowered and agentic children make for the best focus groups.

I gave up my private kindergarten sessions when my need to activate Pearl’s Hill became of more pressing importance. I could recommend another coach to the kindergarten, there was no one else who would lobby and drive Stranger Convos into Pearl’s Hill Terrace.

>> Coaching portfolio at a glance

Forest School Singapore Weekly sessions (3 years) | FSS Holiday 3-day Camp sessions (3 years) | Coney Island Chinese language Forest School (one-off fundraiser for Tak Takut Kids Club spearheaded by co-founder of Earth & Stars Forest School Leonora Lin) | P&J Montessori Kindergarten (1.75 years) | Telok Blangah CC (project) | Superland Preschool (project) | Tak Takut Kids Club (project) | North Vista Secondary School (project) | “Leave No Child Indoors” Research Project with NIE-PESS x NIE x FSS

Moving through

By 2024, FSS had given me a sense of purpose and connection to Singapore that extended far beyond my previous circles. But I’d also outgrown working primarily with children in increasingly smaller green spaces.

Around the time of my graduation from FSS, I found myself in a unique position, through another community that had an offer to bring buzz and revitalisation to the building – 195 Pearl’s Hill Terrace.

I was fed up and frustrated with the constant news of mature forests getting cleared, places doing good work having to close or be displaced because they were struggling to meet rent. I channeled my anger and grief towards action.

My wild hypothesis in 2024: 

What if there were a third place (not home nor work) in Singapore where the many could come to practice having the conversations they needed to have in their first (home) and second (place of work/study) places? 

Might we be able to slow down the pace of clearing land to build more homes – because people were accustomed to communicating better and could more amicably share households? Or could better manage their work stressors and avert persistent burnout?

That was the third place I sought to build with Stranger Conversations in Pearl’s Hill Terrace.

post-FSS: leaping into guerilla placemaking
doing before I even knew what “placemaking” meant

April–June 2024, I lobbied for and co-drove the move of StrangerConvos to 195 Pearl’s Hill Terrace. Over 18 months, I co-established A Public Living Room (APLR)—a non-commercial, communally-run third place for all to be, try, breathe, and relate. 

From Sep 2024, I learnt to steward multiple strangers-in-residence journeys (not all were successful), co-discovering a plurality of unique paths to residency where someone’s exploration, shared with the community, would also anchor and shape this unlikely third place. 

From June 2024–May 2025, the space had a footfall of over 3150 visitors. We stopped manually tracking when it was announced that the master tenancy had been renewed til March 2028.

In June 2025, I created the framework within which volunteer space-minders could flexibly support operations of the community space. APLR Space Minders are a diversely talented and self-selected group of adults most privy to my urban application of Forest School Singapore ways.

During my 18 months rooting myself at Pearl’s Hill Terrace, the instagram account @strangerconvos grew from 5K to 13.4K followers, the telegram group chat grew from 700+ to about 3600+ users.

“I was just telling a couple of folks that day that I love the way you run the space. It forces my logical brain to embrace flexibility and being ok with uncertainty and just figuring things out along the way. I found this place right when I needed it (I was looking to get out of my structured mind)”

– unsolicited feedback from space-minder C, recovering perfectionist who used to work in communications, Nov 2025

“thank you Gen for being here for so many of us, for SC/ APLR.tho it started with a personal-driven agenda to stop/ pause redevelopment, your drive, perseverance and leadership has been amazing; not to mention you don’t earn anything financially from this endeavour – even if one is paid, may not deliver/ move these miles….”

– reflection from a space-minder H, trained in social work, who bushcrafted her own guide to StrangerConvos, Nov 2025

“You’ve been absolutely incredible to the space and to work with, and SC’s loss is totally Forest School’s full gain, you’re such a gem!!”

– a Stranger-in-Residence, Dec 2025

FSS Principles in Practice at StrangerConvos: key events

You can take the girl out of the Forest, but you can’t take the Forest out of her. Turns out, my Forest School background was the most refreshing thing about me whenever I met new folks. Leaving FSS was the best way to support my continued quest for spaces for my learning and growth as an adult committed to living and dying in Singapore, and to support the FSS community at large.

Dinner with Strangers: Orang Laut Cuisine (March 2024)

My first FSS graduation showcase, bringing strangers together around heritage food and storytelling that acknowledges our sources of learning. I highly recommend the sambal udang!

“Placemats” The Art of Being Human “Exhibition” (May-June 2024)

My next FSS showcase, where I created an art installation to negotiate rent for the experimental community space—showcasing Forest School ways in an indoor urban setting – every item brought in had a FSS-related story, but only when the story was asked for.

The first organic walk-in visitor to a fake art exhibition set up so I could create an opportunity to talk to the towkway (Hokkein: thâu-ke for businessman) and negotiate a community rate.

Coach Maybe’s Three-Day Placemats Training Camp (June 2024)

The first training camp I ran for adults. Deploying the hands-behind-lip-sealed practice, I would only give answers when participants asked me their burning questions, and only after effort had been made in deciphering context clues or reasoning out clues with fellow participants. At closing of the training, I would then onboard participants on how to surface queries and curiosities for an entirely new audience to engage in unexpected conversations about the treatment of folks with special needs by society and businesses.

Fun Fact:

Coach Maybe is my coaching pseudonym, a name I gave myself when I didn’t like how the children were going, “Coach Gen #2” when there were two coaches with similar sounding names. I chose <maybe> to hold open the space between yes and no for children. Coach <not yet> wouldn’t have the ring to it.

The FSS Good Death Open House (June 2024)

A chance for FSS’s village built over 8 years, to process the announced closure of Forest School Singapore together. There was a library, an interactive placemats activity, a zine-making workshop and a research presentation.

As preparation, I read every single piece of paper Darren – founder of FSS – contributed to the library for the open house. 

The coach and parent community came together to fortify FSS-researcher Chong Shin Ee’s research presentation “The Earth’s Spine: Examining Educational Frameworks and Ways of Life in Forest School Singapore” before she headed to the UK to represent FSS at the inaugural Forest School Research Symposium. She was the only presenter from the South East Asian region.

The (Open) House of the Extra Ordinary (July 2024)

An experiment: to hold an outreach event to shine light on the lived realities of folks with special needs, without overtly sharing that it was an event about special needs. 

The aim: To reach an audience not ordinarily drawn to a special-needs focused event. 

The concept: create the environment where many could come to chill, lepak and rest – so newcomers might be ready for and receptive to a heart-hitting sharing from lived experiences of the speakers, even if they weren’t expecting to hear one. 

We also experimented with different models of accessibility, with a sliding scale entry fee. 

Closing Ritual: The Death and Birth of Communities in Practice (Oct 2024)

A time to slow down, gather, and honour the efforts and exertions involved in running a business like Forest School Singapore that eschewed the usual profit-motivated commercial practices to attain conventional success.

Bridging my Practices
strIVngs (pronounced strings) – where I realised I wanted to “play” for the “rest” of my life

Since Jan 2023, I’ve been part of an adult learner string orchestra.

Returning to learning music was a conscious decision to engage with an art where I had previously been a deeply unwilling (though privileged) child learner. To not let past experiences prevent me from exploring a form with much to reveal about life in all its wordlessness, but found when the learner practices. My renewed relationship with learning music has informed my FSS practice, and very much vice versa. 

The most important takeaway from music I apply to working with people? The rest must be as loud as the notes. (i.e. don’t rush, let the music breathe; respect time and communication boundaries)

Being part of an ensemble has also offered a seasonal and routine opportunity for my various communities to consistently show up for me when I keep pushing myself.

Closing the Strangest chapter of my life

At the close of my Stranger journey – where I discovered the (for now) peak expression of my FSS ways, by inverting the practice, with adults, indoors – it is a full circle season filled with complex joy. 

I materially supported the growth of Stranger Conversations during the year of The Good Death of FSS; and it is also through my away-from-FSS experiences with StrangerConvos that I can usher in the Rebirth of FSS.

As I exit the stranger ecosystem I watered to return to the Forest School world, it’s in the ethos of all my environments of learning I committed to as an adult – FSS, StrangerConvos, strIvngs – that I now must leave strangers and the hill I love. To close a chapter well is to set myself up in the best possible position to take on the next challenge. 

I also believe: 
that the consistent presence of practitioners from a diversity of backgrounds 
- modelling how to play and 
- experience risk-taking with lower stakes
in a building like Pearl’s Hill Terrace – a natural playground for a startup like Stranger Conversations – 
makes for a fabulous use case for a historic building in the heart of Singapore to simply remain as-is.

In my view, Singapore does not need yet another mall, BTO (Build-to-Order homes) or museum. We lose intangible social, cultural and heritage capital if the organic culture of neighbourliness between creative enterprises, artisans and people who simply wish to try is lost with premature redevelopment.

May the people continue to have the barebones space to try, fail, dream, dare, rest, and hold on to Pearl’s Hill as-is: scrappy, but charming. The last oasis of its kind in Singapore, before the talent pool in Singapore is priced out of their country of origin, and take their talents elsewhere with more green.

Nature, Children, Music, Strangers – all potent catalysts

Know them, dare to fail fast, and don’t give up before you’ve truly given it your best shot.

Closing Words

Hey stranger on the world wide web, thanks for reading this!

It’s been a pretty long practitioner profile eh. I trust you didn’t use a language learning model to give you an executive summary, and you read every word. This really is still the tip of the iceberg. I cannot wait for more to be full-time, embodied practitioners of Forest School Singapore.

Hope this piece gave you a glimpse into what I love, how I work and what I would die for.

True story, a businessman who saw me at my peak artistic expression in 2024 told me candidly months later in the hallways of PHT,

“don’t die for your art”.

But that’s why we build community and join villages, for the sense of camaraderie and for folks to call us home when we go too deep into the flow of good work.

May you flourish, may you find the spaces where you can meet yourself.

And if you can’t find a space where all of you can belong, 

may you have the gumption and guts to create it for yourself. 

Even in the most solo of journeys, it helps to have friends. 

May our paths cross in the wood wide web;

Maybe one day my friends and I will be bringing the Forest to your neighbourhood.

See you when I see you. 

Credits: 
Photos throughout: ONG/LIM Archives, Genevieve Ong, Darren Quek, Dwayne Leow, strIVngs, @ak_artventures, @flyingfishtales

Thank you to my laobei (colloquialism for “my father”), who taught me “the pen is mightier than the sword”, as my sibling and I would routinely butcher the song Words, by the BeeGees every Sunday night when we went for fish soup at Newton Circus in the early 2000s. Also, my mum is a rockstar.

Written by Coach Maybe, refined with claude.ai
Cheers to all who have kindly given their consent for photo release