Outside the Classroom

As the world struggles to get back to some kind of normal taking children outside is increasingly being recognised as a necessity and not just good practice.

It really doesn't matter if the children go outside to play cricket, to do Forest School, have an extended playtime, take a lesson outside, or do something specific for the day. Let's be honest, you can't peek into a nesting box while in the classroom!

I keep saying that Forest School is just one form of outdoor learning, and this week was an opportunity to prove that with Outdoor Classroom Day:

'Outdoor Classroom Day is a global movement to make time outdoors part of every child’s day. On two days of action each year, teachers take children outdoors to play and learn. All year round, the Outdoor Classroom Day community campaigns for more time outdoors every day.'

The next date will be in the Autumn so if you haven't already - now is a good time to sign up!

With a remit that literally means exiting 4 walls for part of the day it can be really simple to fit some outdoor time into the school day.

Currently, the whole school is walking laps of the school field whenever they get a chance, along with commutes to school and leisure activities, staff and pupils are counting the miles they walk, swim & cycle. The aim is to clock up the equivalent distance of 'Around the World in 80 Days'! 

So classes are regularly taking 10 minutes out of the day to circuit the field, helping physical and mental fitness as they go. If anyone fancies throwing a fiver our way we have a Go Fund Me page to sponsor this effort!

As well as their milage, pupils have been outside using the spaces we have to their best advantage. 

For instance following on from their Stone Age experience at Forest School, Year 3 collected outdoor resources and made some Stone Age houses. They made their names using found natural materials and added adjectives to describe themselves. Also they took their new-found knowledge of geology outside to source and test the rocks around school!

Year 2 have been around the grounds doing a data collection on which types of trees and plants there are growing. Eyfs has been planting. All classes have taken the opportunity to go outside whenever they can, with small groups utilising our wooden roundhouse as a quiet space to do some maths!

Fourteen classes took part in Forest School activities this week.

On Outdoor Classroom Day both Yr 6 classes and one Yr 1 class were outdoors at basecamp enjoying the woods. We've made a bird hide so the binoculars and bird watching were very popular.

We've also made a mini pond for wildlife, collecting rainwater to fill it.

We worked with the woodwork tools to create sculptures.

Of course, none of this needs to be just one day.

Slowly we are introducing more loose parts play into break times. Some equipment is easy to come by, free tyres, free pallets, free bakers trays and crates! Other resources take a little bit of sourcing and even fundraising. #

It is worth the effort. Children who are occupied at playtime squabble less, and enjoy their time outside more! They come back into the classroom happier and having used up some energy! 

The word PLAY still strikes fear into the hearts of many. If you are playing you are not working and so many people in education have to account for every tiny bit of learning that happens.

But play is not the opposite of work. Idle, unproductive, unfocused or distracted might be. Children - or even adults - in play are doing none of these things. 

Play IS learning. Play IS work.

Which at last is beginning to be recognised beyond eyfs!

It's not that play only happens outside, it doesn't, but it is easier to have free exploration outdoors where there is more space to move! Taking some aspects of lessons outside not only widens the scope for teaching, but sets an ethos within the school and personal practise that seeps into strategies for all sorts of school, and classroom, life. 

Hopefully, the more schools that take part in something like Outdoor Classroom Day the more it will become evident that it's not something extra to put onto teachers already inundated with demands on what MUST be fitted into a school day. 

It's a tool to make some of those demands easier.