Outdoor learning grows in Scotland as grasp of benefits takes root

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/apr/02/forest-schools-grow-in-scotland-as-grasp-of-benefits-takes-root

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On a bright spring morning, the air is crisp as an apple and the children of Lauriston Castle forest kindergarten are inventing muddy meals at their imaginary cafe. This woodland, north-west of Edinburgh city centre, has become an outdoor classroom for the day, with waterproofs and lunch boxes clustered around the lower branches of the trees.

A black labrador liberates himself from his owner and charges through the sunny glade, to the youngsters’ delight. But unexpected connections are all part of outdoor learning, as early-years officer Amanda Patrick explained. “We might pick up pine cones in the morning, and talk about what they are and what we could do with them. Then they make owls with the cones, so we read a story about owls and then learn a big word, ‘nocturnal’.

“In the classroom the kids ask permission to do this or that,” said Patrick, “but outside they are much more creative and don’t need an adult to lead them. This is what early-years education should be, child-centred and child-led.”

Educators and policymakers across the political spectrum are increasingly convinced by the growing heft of evidence about the exponentially positive impact of learning outdoors on everything from eyesight to risk assessment to resilience. There is particular focus on outdoor, play-based learning for early years, with the entire shortlist for the UK’s best nursery at last years’ Nursery World Awards made up of outdoor operations.

In Scotland, this conviction is also propelled by practicalities. Two years ago, a study of 38 nations ranked Scotland joint last for physical activity, while childhood obesity levels continue to rise, with a quarter of five-year-olds deemed to be at risk. As well as schoolchildren’s Daily Mile, a scheme pioneered by a primary school in Stirling, the chief medical officer recommends three hours of activity a day for under-fives, and outdoor experience is already a part of Scotland’s “curriculum for excellence”.

Meanwhile, a number of local authorities are making ambitious moves to expand outdoor learning as part of their plans to meet the Scottish government’s commitment to a near-doubling of funded childcare by 2020, providing 1,140 hours a year for all three- and four-year-olds and eligible two-year-olds. This February, the children’s minister, Maree Todd, announced funding of more than £850,000 to explore how to embed outdoor learning in this expansion, pledging to make it “a defining feature of childhood in Scotland”.

The rest of the UK has likewise seen a huge growth in forest nurseries, teacher training and campaigns to celebrate outdoor learning, although there has been no comparable funding from the Welsh Assembly, while England’s national play strategy was halted in 2010.

Physical space is an ongoing problem. While nurseries in England must provide daily access to outside play, a 2016 survey by the charity Learning through Landscapes found a wide variation, with many settings struggling with inadequate space and a minority of children not getting this entitlement at all.

The Lauriston Castle kindergarten is part of an Edinburgh city council pilot offering 600 hours of nursery and 500 hours of forest annually, with 100 staff undergoing a three-day training course to become forest leaders.

Todd said: “Our previous trials have shown that the biggest initial barriers to take-up are staff confidence in how to deliver quality outdoor learning and encouraging parental engagement; however, the trials also show these are very easily overcome, especially when staff and parents see the benefits first-hand.”

Rachel Cowper is play programme manager for the social justice organisation Inspiring Scotland, which the Scottish government is funding to work with eight local authorities to develop outdoor learning. This demands a culture change among adults, she explained, not least regarding Scotland’s default weather: rain.

“On visiting Laurieston Castle it was bucketing down, but the kids didn’t bat an eyelid. They were using the rainwater to play and learn about volume and displacement. If they were inside it wouldn’t be allowed in case it made the floor slippy and unsafe,” Cowper said.

While Argyll and Bute council, with its abundance of accessible coastline, has already committed to 50% outdoor provision by 2020, Cowper remains ambivalent about whether setting targets is profitable: “Currently it’s up to the individual council nursery, so should we work on a culture change or guidelines that they then strain to meet?”

She is also adamant that outdoor learning is no middle-class luxury: Inspiring Scotland is partnering Glasgow city council in three of its most deprived areas – Castlemilk, Drumchapel and Tollcross – and she described it as “poverty-proof”.

Glasgow city council’s early-years manager, Heather Douglas, agreed: “This absolutely can apply to everyone. If you look at the history of outdoor provision, it has been dominated by articulate middle-class parents who recognise the good it can do, so now we have a job to do with parents, too, especially younger parents who were screen children themselves. But Inspiring Scotland’s work has shown that community engagement works.

“These outdoor areas are all within walking distance so there are no transport costs, and there’s no capital cost, because you don’t need big expensive buildings, just a shelter. You do need to invest in warm, waterproof clothing, for children and staff. But there’s no spend on fancy toys or equipment, because the natural world provides all that.”

Douglas is well aware of the squeeze on space in a built-up urban environment – she mentions one nursery that is sandwiched between the M8 and the Clydeside Expressway. So the city council is also considering how to use Glasgow’s many magnificent public parks as a base for outdoor nursery shifts, alongside the possibility of registering unused outdoor space close to existing nurseries, and rewilding them on a small scale. “We’re looking at all these spaces around the city: you see bits of scrubby wasteland, but who owns them and can we use them? Why would we not want our parks to be full of little children?”