OUTDOOR LEARNING So, what can outdoor learning look like in your school?
It can look active and fun. A history lesson may involve children digging for bones where they are developing their scientific knowledge, gross motor skills, imagination and descriptive language.
It can look exciting and energetic. A lesson about gravity could involve children building their own obstacle courses, in turn developing teamwork skills, spatial awareness and self- confidence.
It can look stimulating and motivating. A geography lesson about their local environment might involve children being actively involved with managing and caring for their school’s grounds while consolidating scientific knowledge about plants and nature. In addition, children develop empathy, a sense of worth and sustainability values and ethics.
disorganisation and clumsiness. By the afternoon, many pupils often lack the core strength to sit up, and as a consequence you will see them wrap their feet around their chair legs for extra support. Many pupils’ handwriting becomes scruffy and children develop an usually hard pencil grip because they lack the strength to sustain fine manipulative and motor skills to the end of the school day. More and more children have allergies and are afraid of getting their hands dirty. Childhood obesity is at an alarming rate world- wide. Even if your pupils get an hour or so outside running around at school, when they get home, more and more children stay indoors to play on computers or to watch TV. Rarely do children get the experience to play out in open space and develop physical skills. Not only is there less green space due to new housing developments, there’s also a culture of fear which forbids children from being exposed to dirt, exploring outside and taking risks. A child learns by moving and doing. By providing regular outdoor learning sessions, you are giving the future generation the access to the open spaces which they increasingly need in today’s society. Being outside is also proven to decrease stress levels and improve health and well-being. With outdoor learning, keeping fit
and healthy isn’t a chore, as some children find PE lessons; it’s an enjoyable and complimentary side- effect.
An increasing number of children in today’s society struggle to be independent, and often lack the inspiration and motivation to learn. Children often lack the social skills to interact with others, making inappropriate comments or actions. Outdoor learning provides a holistic development of the child. It facilitates group work, empathy and problem-solving skills. Children are naturally stimulated by being outside, which in turn motivates them to learn and improves their behaviour. Moreover, how many children can actually name the plants and wildlife in their vicinity accurately when asked? How often do your pupils look closely at the natural world and their immediate environment, and have the time to describe the patterns, similarities and differences they see over an extended period of time? A philosophy of protecting nature and respecting an environment is built upon a love for it. How can we promote a future generation of sustainability if the children we teach have never really connected to their outdoor environment in the first place? A connection with nature begins with solid roots in their primary years.
It can look gripping and innovative. A science lesson on materials may involve children testing what happens to food when heated on a fire-pit. Scientific enquiry skills are extended beyond the classroom environment while children develop their own risk-management techniques and outdoor skills in a safe and controlled way. As you are preparing for your lessons on a Monday morning, maybe you often think: What kind of world are we preparing our pupils for anyway? Through Outdoor Learning you are enabling your pupils to grow up to be adults who can work cooperatively and have the social skills to interact in society with respect. You are developing your pupils’ resilience so they have the strength and courage to overcome difficult times in life, and the self-confidence to pick themselves up and try again when things don’t go their way. You are raising creative thinkers, who have innovative ideas which test the limits of our ever-advancing technological world. You are raising individuals who respect and care for our environment, and promote these sustainable values for generations to come. And let’s not forget about us, the teachers. Surely we deserve a Monday morning which gives us the benefits Outdoor Learning can bring in health and well-being too. Surely we deserve to go home on a Friday evening with the job satisfaction of knowing that, through Outdoor Learning, we have given our pupils the skills and experiences to enable them to reach their potential whatever the future brings. And most importantly, we’ve all had a thoroughly enjoyable time in the process.
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www.education-today.co.uk
May 2017
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