The issue of outdoor learning often creates a dilemma for schools. On the one hand, its benefits for children are widely recognized. On the other hand, making it happen can lead to multiple, practical challenges. Fortunately, these challenges can be overcome.
Get parents on board
Most, if not all, educators will be aware of how much children can benefit from outdoor learning. Most parents, however, are not educators. They do, however, want what’s best for their children. There is hence an excellent chance of getting parents on board if you clearly explain why outdoor learning matters.
This may be easier than you might, at first, think. Parents were once children themselves. As children, they probably had more freedom to play outdoors than modern children do. They may therefore have some level of unconscious awareness of its benefits. For example, they may remember solving problems, overcoming challenges, and feeling more connected with the world.
Parents may therefore need very little persuasion to get onboard with outdoor learning. In fact, at present, they may be especially eager to support it. Children lost a lot of freedom under COVID19. Outdoor learning gives them some of that freedom back.
Having parents onboard is always useful for any school. It is particularly useful when dealing with initiatives like outdoor learning. Even though the benefits of outdoor learning are widely recognized, they are hard to measure. Parent support can, therefore, be vital to securing the necessary resources to make it happen.
Leverage what you have
All schools have some form of access to outdoor space. At a minimum, there is a playground. In some cases, however, this playground may not be particularly well-secured. Schools can work around this during breaks and lunch by having staff monitor the area. This is, however, likely to be too resource-intensive to use to support outdoor learning.
The solution is to improve playground security. This generally means securing the perimeter. The good news here is that there are many reasons for improving perimeter security. Most of them revolve around safety. For example, a robust perimeter not only makes it harder for people to gain unauthorized entrance, but it also makes it harder for children to wander off.
Safeguarding children may be a much stronger argument for funding than supporting outdoor learning. Another compelling argument is that effective perimeter security can pay for itself by deterring crime. Modern schools are often desirable targets for thieves as they contain a lot of IT equipment.
Advertise your successes
This goes back to the first point about getting parents on board. Educating parents on the benefits of outdoor learning should really be seen as the first step in a process. For best results, you should then follow through by showing them what their children are achieving.
The main reason why this matters, is that the benefits of outdoor learning are notoriously difficult to quantify objectively. You can, however, explain the methodology behind individual outdoor lessons. You can also explain what outcomes you are working towards and how you are measuring progress towards them.
Keeping parents engaged through regular updates can therefore go a long way to achieving two goals. Firstly, it reduces the likelihood that you will have irate parents demanding an explanation for your outdoor lessons. Secondly, it reduces the likelihood that your outdoor learning initiative will be derailed by other stakeholders who are more focused on numbers.
Outdoor learning and the EIF
The education inspection framework aims to look at the overall quality of education as well as academic results. As a part of this, it looks at personal development, behaviour, and attitudes. Outdoor learning can make a valuable contribution to all of these.
This article was contribute by Lucinda Thorpe, Business Development Executive at Newgate who specialise in secured access solutions for schools such as security barriers and gates, bollards and road blockers, which are British designed and built.
Lucinda Osgerby is the Business Development Executive at Newgate, which are specialists in providing businesses in the UK & overseas with secured access solutions such as security barriers and gates,…
