OUTDOOR LEARNING
Outdoor learning residentials: a luxury that should be made accessible to all
J
oy Blizzard, Policy and Communications Officer at the Field Studies Council, on why guaranteed outdoor learning must be part of the national curriculum.
A few months ago, a group of Year 11 students arrived at one of our centres from one of the top 15% most deprived areas in England. They were there for a day of biology fieldwork in the woods. By lunchtime, one of them turned to their teacher and said: “I’m loving this. I might even go into this, you know?” Another asked: “Can we just come here for free? I love being here.” Those two responses on a wet spring day say more about the state of outdoor learning in this country than any policy document. The excitement was real, but the opportunity to connect to nature and all its benefits is not a given for so many.
The Field Studies Council has been helping people learn in – and about – nature since 1943, and we welcome more than 100,000 learners to our centres every year across England, Wales and Scotland. What we see, consistently, is that the children who stand to gain the most from outdoor learning are the ones least likely to get it. We recently submitted evidence to the select committee inquiry into the Government’s Child Poverty Strategy. It forced us to set out plainly what we witness on the ground. The disadvantage gap doesn’t just show up in test scores. It shows up as a gap in experience, opportunity and aspiration. Children growing up in poverty have fewer chances to travel beyond their local area, go on holiday, join in youth activities, access green and blue spaces or visit our national landscapes. The barriers – no public transport, no funding and sometimes no waterproof coat.
That poverty of experience feeds into something harder to measure but just as damaging and what we deem a poverty of
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www.education-today.co.uk May 2026
aspiration. We regularly welcome young people to our centres who have never spent meaningful time in the countryside. When they do, something shifts. They start asking questions about careers they didn’t know existed. They discover that biology isn’t just a textbook subject, that geography is something you can stand in the middle of. We’ve seen students arrive anxious and leave talking about wanting to become ecologists or marine biologists. That’s not a small thing. The evidence for outdoor learning is well established. There isn’t a subject on the curriculum that can’t be enhanced by taking it outside. For science and geography, there is no substitute for first-hand experience of the landscapes and habitats being studied. These experiences create the kind of deep understanding that sticks with students long after the lesson ends. Outdoor learning brings classroom content to life. Seeing the landscapes that inspired literature, using climbing ropes to explore angles in maths, measuring real river profiles rather than reading about them – makes learning real.
But it goes beyond academic results. Outdoor learning transforms engagement, particularly for pupils who struggle in traditional classroom settings. Away from the usual hierarchies and distractions, concentration improves and relationships with peers and teachers can change completely. Students develop confidence, resilience, teamwork and independence. On residentials, some of our young people make a packed lunch or make their own bed for the first time. Those moments of self-sufficiency build something that lasts.
Successive governments have recognised this. Programmes like London Challenge, Nature Friendly Schools, Generation Green and Adventures Away from Home - all of which
we have been involved in – have been funded to boost outdoor learning for disadvantaged children. They work. The evidence base grows with each one. But they are piecemeal and time-limited. When the funding ends, the opportunities disappear and the children who needed them most go back to missing out. Meanwhile, the outdoor learning residential is rapidly becoming the preserve of the diminishing number of families who can afford it. Which is why Scotland’s recent decision matters. The Scottish Parliament has passed the Schools (Residential Outdoor Education) (Scotland) Act, guaranteeing that all school children can experience an outdoor learning residential as part of their time at school. Not as an optional extra. Not dependent on whether a short-term fund happens to be available. As a guaranteed part of their education. The UK Government’s Child Poverty Strategy talks about aspiration and social mobility. The curriculum and assessment review has placed welcome emphasis on enrichment. The new youth strategy commits to access to nature and adventure. These are all the right instincts. But without a mechanism to guarantee outdoor learning within the national curriculum, they risk remaining good intentions rather than lived experiences for the children who need them. This is an opportunity to pull these policy strands together and use outdoor learning as the vehicle to deliver on all of them. The evidence is there. The sector is ready. Scotland has shown it can be done.
We are not asking for something untested or radical. We are asking for every child in this country to have the chance to learn outdoors – to experience the kind of day that made that Year 11 student stop and think, for the first time, that maybe this could be for her, too.
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