Covid19

Outdoor Learning and Teaching Support

Context

With schools planning a phased return over the coming weeks and months, educational settings face significant challenges ensuring social distancing measures and Covid19 management strategies are in place. To support this outdoor space (which on average makes up 70% of school’s available footprint for learning) allows:

  • Young people to spread out
  • Enjoy the widely researched and documented health and wellbeing benefits of being in outdoor spaces and closer to nature
  • Be in an outdoor environment (hopefully reducing infection risk) and also being out in the sunlight and open well ventilated spaces

Aim

Our aim is to support schools through the provision of  outdoor learning to targeted groups that then allows schools to deploy and utilise its teaching staff in the most effective and  efficient way.

Y6 Outdoor Adventure Celebration (July 2020)

Year 6 pupils are in a time of immense change, leaving the school and friends that they have known most of their life but at a time when celebrating their achievements and keeping those social connections is most difficult. At the same time schools are having to manage unprecedented constraints and restrictions with stretched resources and conflicting demands.

We would welcome the opportunity to talk with you about how we might be able to help your Y6 cohort with an OUTDOOR ADVENTURE CELEBRATION

Group Outdoor Learning at school

Where a school has larger classes they wish to split to enable social distancing measures we can provide bespoke outdoor learning programmes that the split class can rota through enabling school staff to teach to a managable group size.

Alternative provision. 1:1 Outdoor Learning at school

Where a school has one or more pupils that require 1:1 or small group provision we will provide a bespoke programme for these pupils freeing up school staff to work with larger class groups.

Off-Site outdoor learning

Where a school needs a small amount of short term respite provision we provide an adventure based, OFSTED REGISTERED, child care provision.

Each school will have its own unique challenges and choose how they are implementing social distancing and may adopt different models, nevertheless outdoor learning is one tool to increase teaching spaces.

School grounds’ and early years’ outdoor spaces are created to be safe, engaging, and happy places for children to be. School grounds are accessible, do not require any additional paperwork or increased adult ratios in order to be used and offer excellent value for money. See some stats and figures from https://www.ltl.org.uk/school-grounds/ Learning through Landscapes

  • More than half of all outdoor learning happens within the school grounds and up to 40% of children’s physical activity happens here too.
  • Over 83% of schools reporting that better grounds and practice led to more active play, better quality of play, more social interaction and more enjoyment of break time.
  • Over half of schools reported less bullying, less time spent sorting playtime issues and better attitudes towards learning.
  • 73% of schools reported improved behaviour – during formal learning time as well as break time.
  • Over 90% of pupils showing better behaviour, learning, health and wellbeing when in an outdoor lesson.
  • Nearly 90% of schools reported an increase in perceived quality of the environment, by staff, pupils, parents, and community.
  • Half of all schools reported wider use of their grounds, outside of the school day, with a drop in vandalism to match the community involvement.

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