A new study from Natural England provides strong evidence that learning outdoors has multiple benefits for children and young people’s learning.
The Natural Connections project, delivered by Plymouth University and funded by Natural England, the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and Historic England, found that 92% of teachers surveyed said pupils were more engaged with learning when outdoors, and 85% saw a positive impact on children’s behaviour. Despite the positive feedback from those schools that do support children learning outside, the study also found that there were barriers for schools, mainly in teacher confidence, and fragmentation of support provision.
The findings were based on a 4 year study involving 40,000 primary school children across the South West. In the Autumn 2016, the team will be publishing a toolkit for schools to support them in implementing learning outside the classroom.
July 2016