No one connected to Lancashire Wildlife Trust is likely to be surprised to hear that learning outdoors increases children’s wonder of nature and their engagement with the natural world. Research also shows that it improves children’s confidence, resilience, behaviour and social skills.  

What people may be more surprised to learn is that Outdoor Learning also improves children’s learning and attainment, as regards their school curriculum. Indeed, many schools are often hesitant to embrace outdoor learning as they fear it will impact on their learners’ progress.

It was fantastic therefore when Miss Prior, Headteacher of Woodfield Primary School in Wigan, asked the Education Team to work with the school for a whole year. For six weeks, every year group will spend half a day learning outdoors with a Lancs WT Education Officer, with the learning supporting the children’s work in the classroom. 

So far Year 2 and Year 6 have learnt about Living Things and their Habitats, Year 3 have learnt about the Stone Age and Year 4 are learning about Rainforests.

The vision and commitment of the staff and governors of Woodfield Primary School mean that the children already have an excellent outdoor learning environment and it has been easy to plan lots of engaging activities that the children have learnt from and enjoyed. Highlights have included: 

• building model houses using wattle and daub techniques; 

• constructing fantastic invertebrates from natural materials and explaining how they are adapted to their habitats;

• making charcoal to use in art; 

• getting up close to the wonders of worms to find out what we can learn from them about living things; 

• becoming bone detectives to learn about archaeozoology; 

• enjoying getting wet and muddy when learning to be soil scientists; 

• using trail cameras to investigate the nocturnal wildlife of the school grounds. 

The children’s comments show how the project is succeeding: 

Working outside makes you listen more because it’s more fun and interesting. You’re experiencing it better. (Year 6 child) 

They can see how Outdoor Learning helps their understanding: 

When we did our grid work in the Wildlife Area, it helped me to understand what we’d learned in class about grid references. (Year 3 child) 

And they understood the wider benefits of being amongst the natural world: 

Learning outside in the fresh air refreshes your brain from stress. Working outside and listening to the birds helps your mental health. (Year 6 child) 

It has been a great experience to work with the children, with Miss Prior, and with the rest of the school team. We look forward to the remainder of the project and hope that it becomes a foundation to extend our work with schools. 

To find out more about our Outdoor Learning sessions, visit our page here.