Outdoor Learning
Building our curriculum from the outside in
It is clear, from a national and international evidence base, that outdoor learning can contribute significantly to the education and personal development of children and enable them to embrace the challenges of their futures.
Learning
We learn in context and through experience and place. Therefore, we need to offer different and challenging experiences to stimulate children’s learning and development. Learning beyond the classroom, in all its forms, can make a huge contribution to this. It engages and motivates learners through first-hand experiences which demonstrate the relevance of knowledge, understanding and skills, and can help to underpin better attainment and achievement across the curriculum.
Health & Wellbeing
Learning outdoors inevitably involves physical activity, if not through the learning itself then in travel to the activity. Outdoor learning opens doors to opportunities to lead physically active lives well beyond school. These physical outdoor activities are also generally non-competitive and are consequently attractive to many people as lifelong pursuits.
Young adulthood is a time when significant mental health problems and mental illness affect as many as one in ten of our young people. The World Health Organisation warns us of the effect of depression and depression-related illnesses on our children. There is substantial evidence that links the natural environment with good physical health and psychological wellbeing. It indicates that nature can make positive contributions to our health, help us recover from pre-existing stresses or problems, have an ‘immunising’ effect by protecting us from future stresses, and help us concentrate and think more clearly. In light of this, children’s wellbeing could be enhanced through learning outdoors and this could act as a stimulus for a lifetime of good health through the outdoors.
