The great outdoors is one if the best resources available to teachers, writes Nick Lee
The draw of taking part in activities in the open air can be far more powerful for children than sitting indoors and listening to teachers talking about the lesson in hand. Something as magical as lighting a fire can be so engaging for children and the benefits for educators of enabling children to take part in such simple activities are numerous.
When children are outside, this might be the only time in the school day that they are allowed to feel free. Many children relish this sense of freedom, and we can all relate to the feeling of having no pressure to do anything we don’t want to do, perhaps a bit like being on holiday and reading a book for many of us.
Most children, regardless of their abilities or needs, love the sense of space outdoors; they love rolling down slopes and climbing trees or low level objects; and they love the sights and sounds of nature and watching things fall or spin. Children usually relate so easily to outdoor environments, which is a great bonus for the cause of outdoor learning, even before an adult has started to get involved.
If the outdoors motivates the child you are working with, why not use that to your advantage and use it as part of the day’s schedule. I know that would have worked wonders for me when I was at school. Spending time outdoors can also be used as a reward for good behaviour or learning.
Similarly, an outdoor environment can provide a great sensory break for children who struggle to focus in class for very long. For many children, working hard for a prolonged period of time can be very demanding. They need time to be able to re-centre themselves for the next activity asked of them. This time outside could range from anything from a few pushes on a swing to 15 minutes of complete free exploration.
Opportunities for learning
There are so many ways for teachers to get creative in devising learning opportunities for children outdoors. At my school, we have used lots of different types of outdoor activities in our outdoor space. Most are done in class groups and, as a generic SEN primary school, we often have pupils with a very wide range of abilities. We have found, though, that we can take all subjects outside and that we’ve been able to differentiate at every P level. To ensure that learning is accessible to all, it is often important to devise a range of different activities (requiring different skills and abilities) covering the same subject or topic.
Let’s look at the example of sitting around a fire, for example. As a group we can all experience the fun and the sensory stimulation of a fire, and there is a lot to be said for a child being able to keep themselves and others safe around a fire.
When it comes to learning to light fires and understanding what fire is, we have to get creative. We could hand over hand fire strikers to less mobile children, both with peers and with adults. We could light a match in the (safe) vicinity of a child with visual impairment and watch for a reaction at varying distances, then blow it out so they can smell the smoke. For children with PMLD, we can give them a warm pad to touch and respond to.
More able children can be given the resources needed to make a fire and we can watch what they do with the different elements. Some pupils can also be talked through the entire process, perhaps with a symbolised set of instructions for them to follow, at the correct level for them. This could be anything from a one symbol level all the way up to giving them the complete set of instructions for them to work through. After they have done it once, we could cut up the instructions so the children have to sequence them again; for every correct part of the sequence we could reward them with a resource they need. Or we could just give them the resources and watch them carefully as they try to work it all out on their own. This example shows how outdoor learning can be so engaging for children, and so effective at enabling every learner to take part in a single activity at a level that is appropriate to them.
Differentiation
Outdoor learning can also fit in really well with role playing and game playing. For example, whilst pretending to be pirates, we could learn sea shanties, how to tie knots and read the treasure maps. While these might at first seem to be difficult learning objectives, by thinking outside the box we can make them achievable for almost all learners. Those working at P1 to P3 levels can respond to different songs, textures of rope and changes in how their body feels in the different environments of the treasure hunt. P4 to P7 learners can learn to copy and repeat patterns when singing sea shanties, take turns in pulling on the ropes to hoist the pirate flags and cleat them off, and then learn to recognise different part of the outdoor environment either by picture, symbol or sign. Those at P8 and above can learn the sea shanties and sing them in rounds or in repeat-after-me fashion. They can learn basic knots and concentrate on fine motor skills, rather than the gross motor skills needed to pull up a flag. They can also be given a basic map to label and then follow to find the treasure.
Differentiating an activity so a group of learners with SEN can stay together rather than teaching a session by ability is so important. I believe that being able to do this promotes empathy, teamwork and, most of all, social skills amongst all learners. Turn taking, sharing and social cues can all be taught through outdoor learning, with a bit of prior planning and preparation.
Opportunities for outdoor learning are only limited by the imagination we teachers bring to the process. At our school, we have created not just outdoor musical instruments but an orchestra and amphitheatre to play in, just so the music objectives could be reached outside by all the children at their level. We also got children to create their face as a map on the ground, then we planted daffodils as eyes, noses and smiles. The pupils could then check them and watch them grow throughout the year.
Involving staff, rain or shine
When I took on the newly created outdoor learning role at our school, I found that staff engagement was one of the biggest problems I faced. As would probably be the case in most schools, the vast majority of our workforce were simply not very “outdoorsy” people – and this is perfectly understandable. They would rather get pupils engaged in wet play indoors than, for example, go outside puddle jumping with them. Encouraging some of the staff to work outside with children on cold, wet January days was, to start with, somewhat tricky.
Although the weather was initially a turn-off for some, it plays a huge part in outdoor learning at school. Our risk assessments for weather generally allow children to go outside in all bar the strongest of winds, due to the site having a lot of trees.
Rain or snow can create all sorts of play opportunities for children and staff. The wind whips up children better than the blue “Panda Pops” of my youth, and when the sun comes out, so do the local flora and fauna, along with caps and sun cream monitors for the children. The uncontrollable elements of outdoor learning can make or break any session outside, but it is important to embrace the weather and try to work it into whatever you are doing with the children.
It is a good idea to make sure that planning for outdoor learning is not too rigid; we often change a plan just before, or even during, a session to take account of the effects of the weather on both children and staff. However, as one of our sensory staff pointed out, not all of the sensory play and experiences we engage in with children need to be “nice”; it can be just as educational and inspiring for children to experience (within limits) feeling cold or being dirty. Extremes can bring a lot more out of people and can show us their basic human responses to their environment.
Facilitating outdoor learning
In these times of budget cuts and scarce funding, non-core areas of school life are under pressure, so things like outdoor learning could potentially fall by the wayside in the drive to carry on hitting local and national government targets. There are things that we can do, though, to try to ensure this doesn’t happen.
The involvement of the school’s senior leadership team was important at our school. Outdoor learning was written into the policies and the curriculum of the school and it took the direct involvement of members of the senior leadership team to get all of the school staff on board. Each key stage was given a day to do outdoor learning as they saw fit – in classes for an hour each, as a whole key stage for the day or in more ability-driven groups. The Headteacher was very much behind this initiative and if children or classes were not going outside, questions were asked as to why not.
The provision of appropriate clothing was written into our dress code policy for outdoor learning, so gone were the days of adults shivering and complaining in sandals and a t-shirt. Six years ago, when we started this venture and budgets were not as tight as they are now, the school even purchased a set of waterproofs for every child, to be handed back in at the end of year for reallocation the following year.
Taking care of your outdoor space
It’s all well and good having a nice outdoor space for pupils to enjoy, but it’s important to take care of it as well, as all the footfall caused by daily use by pupils and staff can take it’s toll on frequently used areas and paths – and that’s nothing compared to the damage caused by wheelchairs users and their equipment; those tyres can rip and tear the ground into a muddy mess long before wellingtons do.
So if you can find the funding to do so, it’s a good idea to put in wheelchair friendly paths and appropriately protected areas for wheelchair users to take part in gardening and other activities. It’s important to try to ensure all our outdoor areas are accessible for those who use a wheelchair.
Simple pleasures
As we’ve seen, a great deal can be achieved in outdoor learning, especially when we start breaking the objectives down into smaller and smaller chunks. Most children love to take part in fun activities outside and with the right planning, learning can be differentiated to meet a very wide range of pupil needs and abilities.
Of course, it’s also important simply to use the outdoors as the outdoors, and just let the children go and explore. Always remember that watching those leaves fall can be, and often is, far more exciting than anything we teachers can dream up.
Author: Nick Lee
Nick Lee
Nick Lee is a specialist teaching assistant for outdoor learning at Fort Royal Community Primary School, Worcestershire: www.fortroyal.co.uk
