Take learning outside
If education is a voyage of discovery, why not explore the opportunities to take learning outside? Chiara Pannozzo reports.
The Early Years are a time of unrivalled personal discovery, in which each day holds the potential for adventure for a child – and nowhere offers greater potential for adventure than the great outdoors.
'The benefits of outdoor play are really very basic,' says Harry Harbottle, a consultant in play and risk management, who was formerly appointed by the EU as a child safety expert to the European Standards Organisation. 'If children aren't allowed to engage with the elements – mud, water, air, even fire – how can they begin to understand the world that they live in?'
Harry argues that there is a need to move away from a culture of reluctance to let children explore outdoors. 'We are at last realising the consequences of children spending most of their time indoors,' says Harry. 'There are too many children who have been adversely affected by a lack of exercise and stimulation.'
Removing barriers
A solution to counteracting the effects of spending too much time indoors is to begin to embrace outdoor learning. 'From working across the EU, I have seen the benefits of taking learning outdoors,' says Harry. 'Children in Northern Europe, in particular Germany and Scandinavia, have much more independent mobility.' In order to create a similar effect in Britain, official guidance on play now advises practitioners to undertake a risk 'benefit' analysis, when they are concerned about the nature of a certain activity.'
'Perceived negative risks surrounding health and safety seem to have become part of our culture,' says Harry. 'It is often hard for practitioners to remove this barrier. However, a risk benefit analysis encourages practitioners to look more closely at the associated benefits rather than just the risks. By doing this, practitioners can take a more balanced approach to ensure that only relevant and proportionate provisions are put in place to reduce the likelihood of accidents. It is important that practitioners use safety rules and regulations to enable children to do things, rather than stop them from doing things.'
Harry also believes that parents and practitioners should not underestimate the level of expertise they already possess in the field of risk benefit analysis. 'In my view teachers, rather than parachuted-in experts, are the real specialists,' he says. 'They know the children and the area, and are better equipped to handle any behavioural issues, which very often are the causes of problems rather than technical ones,' says Harry.
It is important to remember that accidents are rare. 'Provided you have taken the proper, logical steps, and have completed a risk benefit analysis, then you should have demonstrated that you have taken the appropriate level of care,' he says.
In addition to the health and developmental benefits, outdoor education also helps to increase awareness of the environment. 'If we want people to become more environmentally conscious, what better way to do this than to encourage children to engage with nature?' asks Harry.
North Lanarkshire
So what is happening in Scotland? Well, one local authority that has been active in the outdoor learning arena is North Lanarkshire Council. 'There is now much more of a focus on going outside with the children,' explains Marian Cairns, Early Years Development Officer. 'These experiences cannot be recreated indoors. It would be easy to mistake outdoor learning as simply expanding children's knowledge about nature and the ever changing landscape.'
'While of course these factors are one of the main benefits, being outdoors lends itself to the whole curriculum. We do not see the outdoors as a separate area but as indoors and outside being one planned learning environment. Staff are encouraged to view the area they plan for as being from the nursery entrance to their perimeter fence – and beyond. They are encouraged to use the learning potential of the local community, and country parks.'
Embracing outdoor learning
Embracing outdoor learning has required a great deal of hard work, but the rewards make it all worthwhile. 'We knew if this were to be a success, we would have to support our early years practitioners appropriately,' says Marian. This process began by accessing New Opportunities funding to provide safe and secure play areas and by North Lanarkshire Childcare Partnership funding training opportunities to all of its nursery establishments. This allowed staff to explore opportunities for children to learn outdoors.
Furthermore, Early Years establishments were provided with a number of resources, guiding them in how to use the outdoors appropriately to create worthwhile learning experiences. Materials such as Mindstretchers 'We Go Outside', began to be distributed to facilitate their use of the outdoors as a challenging learning environment. Conferences, specialist site visits, Forest School Taster sessions, resource allocation and development officer support have assisted staff in recognising the value of being outdoors.
Clear benefits
Early Years practitioners could clearly see the benefits for children. Not only were they more comfortable in an outdoor environment, the children were being presented with more spontaneous challenges, encouraging their holistic development.
'The colours change, the temperature changes, the feel of the outdoors changes all the time, and that in itself creates a more sensory outdoor experience and offers greater challenge,' says Marian. 'Taking learning outdoors also provides the children with more freedom to explore. Indoors they can take part in activities that are stimulating and interesting, however, outside children are exposed to more opportunities to explore and ask questions about the natural environment.'
The benefits of outdoor learning have also extended to practitioners, some of whom have reported feeling healthier and less stressed.
Aberdeen and Edinburgh
The Nature Nurture Project is an early intervention programme, that runs in partnership with Aberdeen City Council and Camphill School. It accredits its success with using woodland spaces to provide a calm environment for the children. Terri Harrison of Camphill School describes the positive effect the outdoors has on children, 'Being out in nature with staff that are focused on understanding their needs, gives them the opportunity to test their skills, push themselves a little further each time and then celebrate their success.'
The Cowgate Under 5's Centre in Edinburgh also has a strong ethos in outdoor learning. Lynn McNair, Head of the Centre, discusses their ethos, 'Our aim is to help the children become experienced risk assessors who are resilient and thoughtful about their own personal safety, and who can make good choices about what risks to take.'
Tackling anxiety
Lynn believes that anxiety is underpinning a reluctance to take learning outside, and it is crucial that this anxiety is not passed onto children. 'If we are anxious and prevent children from taking risks, we are not encouraging them to persist with challenging tasks,' she says. 'By removing the challenges, we are not developing resilience in our children.'
In order to help facilitate outdoor education, Curriculum for Excellence has embedded a number of principles associated with outdoor learning in the experiences and outcomes for the Early Level. 'There are a number of references to exploring the outdoor environment,' says Juliet. 'And there is clearly going to be a great deal more expectancy about what is possible.'
The importance of play
'Play is central to how children learn, both in terms of cognitive skills and softer skills around relating to other people. It is a fundamental part of children's quality of life and is enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Outdoor play in particular can also be a major contributor to outcomes around physical activity and healthy weight. Developing play spaces and play opportunities for children and removing barriers to play is therefore a priority.' - Early Years Framework, p11
- Posted on 08 September 2009 under Outdoor learning, Issue 16, In this issue.
- Tagged as outdoor learning.
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