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In the late 1990s teachers acting as mentors play a key role in initial teacher training (ITT). This article reports the ® ndings of a study which examined student teachers' perceptions of`good' practice in mentoring. Given that certain parallels have been drawn between the nineteenth-centur y pupil-teacher scheme and school-based ITT, the work of Lave and Wenger (1991) who see apprenticeship as central to learning was used as a framework for analysing the data. The study highlighted the signi® cance of the affective in student teachers' school-based learning. But it also highlighted the signi® cance of the affective in mentors' practice: e.g. mentors' feelings of vulnerability. The way in which students responded to mentors in this respectÐ how far they were able to`manage' their mentorsÐ ultimately contributed to the success of students' placements. The article concludes that the possession of mentoring skills alone will not guarantee that students receive appropriate support.

Closely associated with the Danish early years programme, the Forest School concept was brought to England by staff of Bridgwater College, Somerset, following an exchange visit to Denmark in 1993. Drawing on interviews with three Forest School workers and data posted on the Bridgwater College Forest School website, the article outlines and then evaluates the key aims, approach and ethos of Forest School, focusing specifically on its relevance to young children (aged three to five years). It is suggested that while the significance of self-esteem and learning styles may be over-emphasised and, in some cases, opportunities for environmental education under-emphasised, Forest School fits well both with traditional views of 'good' early childhood education and more recent curriculum frameworks in England and Wales, whilst also addressing current cultural concerns about children's increasingly sedentary and managed lifestyles.

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This paper tells the story of an encounter between two early years teachers and two Forest School workers, the growing tensions in their relationships and how these tensions were resolved. When analysed through a Foucauldian (poststructuralist) lens, the story can be read as a battle between dominant discourses-a battle exacerbated by the outdoor context in which it took place. Exploring the consistency and contradictions between these discourses enabled the teachers to make changes to their practice and to reconstruct their professional subjectivities in a way that more closely addressed their current interests and the requirements of the proposed Foundation Phase for Wales.