Why is outdoor learning important?
Taking learning into the outdoor environment enables our pupils to explore, absorb and learn in a range of environments for example from the school playground to local lakes enabling us to maximise the learning potential of such spaces. All these environments have vast sensory /opportunities to offer to our pupils and provide a wealth of different learning opportunities they may have never had the opportunity of exploring.
How are outdoor sessions conducted?
Teachers plan and design activities that integrate facets of the whole school curriculum into the natural world and outdoor learning. Sessions are planned and interwoven with life skills, communication targets, EHC targets etc and give opportunities throughout, enabling pupils to experience environments and learn in relation to their own skills and abilities.
Explore
Sensory Opportunities
Environment
Gain Confidence Outside
What does nature provide?
It has been scientifically proven that spending time outside in a natural environment is beneficial to wellbeing. Spending more time outside has lots of benefits for health and wellbeing enabling pupils to engage, focus and participate in expanding their learning environment.
According to Wells and Evans (2003), ‘green plants and vistas reduce stress among highly stressed children’. Learning environments with a greater number of plants, greener views and access to natural outdoor learning areas can reduce levels of stress.
Being an eco school we help pupils understand how we can care for nature and our planet. Recycling, composting, and up cycling are part of the school’s ethos.
Exploring the outdoor environment
We give the pupils the opportunity to explore many different outdoor environments including hedgerows, orchards, and ponds as well as different types of woodland. Pupils can observe the different wildlife and plants that are found there during the changing seasons through scavenger hunts, crafts, and sensory stories.
We give the pupils the opportunity to explore many different outdoor environments including...
Hedgerows
Orchards
Ponds
Woodland
Outdoor learning enables pupils to:
- Develop knowledge about flora and fauna all around us.
- Understand where our food comes from.
- Understand the world around us.
- Develop navigation and co-ordination around local areas.
- Discover how to care for nature and our planet.
- Develop life skills when visiting commercial areas.
- Use the elements to benefit learning.
- Integrate whole school curriculum in the real world.
- Experience things on a larger scale than possible in a classroom environment.
- Explore and experience different natural environments.
We aim to:
- Support pupils to plant, grow and harvest fruit and vegetables on our school allotments.
- Support pupils to explore, cook and taste produce grown on allotments.
- Provide natural materials to make crafts and explore.
- Develop numeracy, literacy, science, and geography skills in the outdoor world.
- Support pupils experience of different natural environments through sensory stories.
- Promote independence of pupils by navigating in the local community using picture maps and symbols.
- Enable pupils to be involved in recycling routines in school, caring for the environment.
- Provide opportunities to visit the Urban farm / school allotment and local allotment
- Provide opportunities to be involved in outdoor community projects.