Let's Go Learn - Outside!

A survey of 700 schools and early learning settings, commissioned by Learning through Landscapes (the national school grounds charity) has proved that schools which have invested in and improved their outdoor facilities for pupils, experience significant tangible benefits such as:

- enhanced pupil behaviour (73% of respondents)
- a reduction in bullying (64% of respondents)
- improved attitudes towards learning (65% of respondents)
- better social interaction (84% of respondents)
- increased community / parental involvement (66% of respondents)

Little wonder then that the Growing Schools initiative - a government programme which aims to encourage and inspire all schools to use the "outdoor classroom" (both within and beyond the school grounds) - claims to have over 12,000 schools participating in activities and requesting resources and advice on how to incorporate the learning opportunities available via the natural world into the school curriculum and everyday teaching practices.

Schools which have been quick to recognise and exploit the educational benefits of the outdoor classroom can revel in the knowledge that their work is in keeping with the vision and aims of the Learning Outside the Classroom Manifesto, launched in November 2006. The manifesto states that every young person should experience the world beyond the classroom as an essential part of learning and personal development. In a society where there is mounting pressure to demonstrate an awareness of the need for sustainability, schools which offer children a direct opportunity to gain an understanding of sound environmental practice at an early age, will no doubt earn significant parental / government support.

But even setting aside the obvious learning and behavioural advantages afforded by an alfresco approach to teaching, it is also worth considering the significant health benefits to pupils. Recent media coverage has heightened awareness of the growing child obesity problem in the UK, which can in part be attributed to the reduced number of hours children spend exercising. A report in The Lancet recommended that children need 90 minutes exercise each day, yet although the current UK guidelines recommend an hour of exercise - a recent study found only 1 in 10 children of school age achieve that limit. If this trend is left to continue half of all children in England could be obese by 2020. The fact is, according to an international survey of 3,500 young people from Britain, the US, Australia, Germany, India, China, Russia and South Africa, British children are among the laziest in the world, spending the equivalent of half a year of their childhood lives watching television, playing computer games or surfing the internet. The study found that between the ages of seven and 16 British children spent an average of 9.4 hours each week glued to a screen, just behind Australians and significantly more than children in all the other countries surveyed.

Armed with these alarming statistics it is clear that any initiative which can break this couch potato mentality must surely be worth pursuing. Spending time in a garden environment is a great way of subtly increasing a child's physical activity without packaging it as a formal exercise session. Similarly, steering children away from the addictive and sedentary entertainment represented by watching television or home computer games can stimulate interest in adopting a far healthier new outdoor leisure pursuit.

Finally, there is one further "commercial" justification for investing in an outdoor classroom. With space at a premium in most schools and the media keen to hype up the phenomenon of the overcrowded classroom, it makes perfect sense to take advantage of an existing resource and capitalize on its full potential. Creating a structured outdoor teaching environment can help alleviate some of the problems associated with trying to squeeze in planned lessons across the various year groups, using the traditional finite classroom resources.

Armed with this information, it is easy to predict that developing the outside space and creating an appealing garden / play area are destined to become regular features on many a school's fundraising agenda.

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