Ensure pupils are involved and engaged with outdoor learning
You need to show how your outdoor learning practice has positively impacted your pupils’ experience. For example, you can demonstrate how attending a training course and implementing some of the ideas from it improved a teacher’s outdoor learning knowledge and skill or a pupil’s engagement in learning.
Some examples of measuring impact include:
- an analysis of pupil evaluations from each term’s outdoor learning provision to identify what pupils have found engaging, how they would benefit from further development and what would enhance their motivation to engage further
- case studies of individual or groups of pupils showing the impact of outdoor learning on their perceived ability to learn and/or statements from staff about how outdoor learning has had a noticeable and positive impact on pupils
- pupil feedback on their outdoor learning experience – consider using ‘before’ and ‘after’ stories or draw and write evidence
- senior leadership feedback about pupil engagement, alongside some data showing the positive effects of outdoor learning on pupil behaviour, attitudes and personal development skills
- parent feedback about their children’s experience of all aspects of outdoor learning – how involved, excited and motivated they are about it.
Remember in each case to describe the impact of your actions (that is, what difference they made) and not just what you did.
One of the numerous benefits of outdoor learning is the effect it has on pupils. For many pupils, as soon as they are outdoors, their manner changes and they take on a different way of being: simply put, they feel more comfortable and at ease, and are therefore better able to learn.
Harnessing this change in behaviour and attitude is one of the skills of effective and meaningful outdoor learning provision. While outdoor learning does not serve purely as entertainment for pupils, it can be something in which they are fully engaged, as they notice the benefits on themselves and their peers.
In some schools, outdoor learning can take on an air of excitement because it is novel. This is to be expected, although the significant aspect to consider is the sustainability of excitement so that it can be enjoyed in the longer term.
Intentions are actions you intend to take in order to improve your provision in this benchmark. Choose three intentions to focus on.
There are two parts to involving pupils meaningfully in outdoor learning:
- consulting them on decisions about outdoor learning in your school
- surveying them on the impact of the learning provision further down the line.
This intention is the first part of the process in that it ensures that pupils are involved at every relevant opportunity where decisions are made. Your school might like to use the template provided to guide the consultation, so that pupils are clear about what is required of them.
Remember that consultations with pupils need to be open to all but not everyone will want to participate in the consultation, so your school will need to ensure that there is adequate representation from all pupils.
The most important point to take away is that pupils must be asked about what they want to learn and how they would like to learn.
Top tips
- Consider having an outdoor learning pupil voice group (or named something similar), where pupils represent the views from each class/year group and bring them to a central, collective point.
- Ensure pupils know that their views are important and will be heard, but let them know that not all ideas will be taken on board by those who lead outdoor learning in your school, for practical and/or financial reasons.
Templates
- Use this template as a basis for your pupil consultation.
- Download these questions to inform your pupil impact survey.
This intention is about offering pupils appropriate opportunities to become more involved in your school’s outdoor learning provision and development. Their role will be specifically to uphold and promote outdoor learning in and outside of your school while contributing to all aspects of the provision.
Your first step is to decide the parameters of the ambassador role. Once the role has been formalised, you can then recruit ambassadors. You could take a more formal route and advertise and interview for the role or you might prefer to keep it informal and invite anyone who is interested in the role to take it on. Either way, be clear about the ambassador role and the contributions they will make, and ensure this is communicated and comprehended by all involved.
You will need to evaluate the ambassador role after an agreed period to ensure it is fit for purpose. Your school might like to do this termly and make any adjustments to the role in a timely way.
Top tips
- Ensure pupils are clear about what is expected of the ambassador role: what the role entails within and outside of your school. Decide this as a school before inviting pupils to apply.
- Consider a training or development programme for ambassadors so the role is standardised across your school.
- Appoint a member of staff to coordinate the ambassador role. Alternatively, consider a joint pupil/staff member role. If appropriate, your school might like to offer the coordinator role to a suitable pupil or small group or pupils.
A useful maxim to remember for this intention is that one size does not fit all. It is crucial to consider all pupil needs (learning needs and individual/specific) so that everyone can access outdoor learning provision in a way that works well for them.
For some pupils, outdoor learning will feel like a major barrier: they might not have spent much time learning outdoors, nor learning about the outdoors before. Learning in and about something unknown can feel intimidating or threatening and this will affect how they respond to the outdoor learning opportunities in your school.
Enabling pupils to have access to all aspects of outdoor learning means that they can begin to feel more comfortable in their own time and in their own way. Access for one pupil will look very different to that of another pupil. Either way, your school will want to ensure there is appropriate access for every pupil, taking into account their needs at all times.
Optimum access means that outdoor learning is viewed as a mainstay of your school and is not removed as a sanction nor offered as a reward. Maintaining access to outdoor learning opportunities needs to be a priority of your school.
Top tips
- Ask pupils (and if necessary, their parents, for a fuller picture) about how they can make the most of the outdoor learning provision in your school and act upon the findings as far as you can. Use questions such as: what are my needs? What do I like/dislike about being outside or learning about the outdoors?
- Be clear as a school about how far you can go to meet pupil needs. You might not be able to do everything you would like. When you are able to go further (because of additional resources or staff training and so on), you can do.
Further resources
Creating a logo and motto that represents your school’s approach to outdoor learning will enable you to bring together ideas, thoughts and opinions from pupils and all other stakeholders. It may incorporate your local approach, your current practices or your future vision. It should be unique to your school and represent what you feel is important to you.
Ensure all pupils have an input to the design and their opinions and viewpoints are considered and valued. This could be via a home task or completed within curriculum time. Invite everyone to be involved, including staff and families: this is a great opportunity to find out what matters most in your community and what everyone feels is important in your school’s attitude to outdoor learning.
Be flexible about how you select the final design. The outdoor learning curriculum lead may want to decide or you could invite the pupils to vote so that they hold responsibility and ownership for it.
The completed logo and motto could be used on all letterheads, on the school website and on all forms of communication to have impact and demonstrate your school’s values and attitudes towards outdoor learning.
Top tips
- Consider staging an exhibition to help choose the winning design.
- Promote your new logo and motto with the local media to tell them about what you are doing and how you are providing outdoor learning in your school.
Further resources
- Try this free online logo design tool.
When pupils are engaged and enthusiastic about the benefits of outdoor learning, they become passionate advocates and can contribute to others’ experiences in a positive and affirming way. This domino effect of interest ripples through your school and beyond to the wider community. This can be very helpful if there is resistance to outdoor learning.
A pupil-led approach is well-known in most schools and your school can use this to its advantage. Pupils can share their knowledge, skills, understanding and values with their peers as well as with parents, carers, staff members and members of the wider community. It is a particularly valuable mechanism when communicating with those who might have reservations about the values and benefits of outdoor learning.
Note that this is a different contribution to the ambassador role, which is more formal and visible; contributing to others’ outdoor learning experiences does not need to be public and works better when it is ‘in the moment’.
Contributing to others’ outdoor learning experiences can also include supporting pupils who struggle with alternative styles of learning: peer-led encouragement can be more effective than anything that adults attempt.
Top tips
- Remind pupils about your school’s aims and plan for outdoor learning so that they are clear about their messages.
- Ask pupils to consider what they could do to contribute to others’ experiences of outdoor learning and implement their ideas, where appropriate.
- Ensure there is ample support for pupils from senior leaders, so the outdoor learning ‘message’ permeates through your school in a clear and consistent way.
You school must ensure that its outdoor learning provision is accessible to all. It is inappropriate to use it as a reward or a sanction. In doing so it undervalues the aims or intentions of what you are trying to achieve.
It is easy to imagine a time when a teacher uses outdoor learning as a bargaining tool. For instance, if the pupils behave in a way that the teacher has asked them to do, the teacher rewards them with their outdoor learning provision, but if the pupils do not behave in the way requested by the teacher, the outdoor learning provision is taken away from them.
Outdoor learning needs to be so entrenched in the curriculum that it cannot be arbitrarily withheld.
Top tips
- Ensure everyone in your school understands that the outdoor learning provision is part of the curriculum and not an added extra. This guarantees its solidity and place in every year group’s timetable.
- Reinforce with senior leaders and pupils alike that outdoor learning is non-negotiable: it is part of the curriculum and everyone is encouraged to participate in the best way for them.
- Agree with pupils the details of your school’s behaviour policy (or what you call it in your environment) and how rewards and/or sanctions are given, if relevant.
- Consider adding this to your school charter.
Think about:
- Meeting needs: how does your outdoor learning training programme meet pupil needs and is it applicable to all pupils in your school? How do you know what pupils’ needs are? How will you know if pupils’ needs are being met? Make sure you ask them.
- Pupil enthusiasm: how are pupils encouraged to talk about outdoor learning with their peers and/or families? Do pupils feel comfortable with the outdoor learning programme? If not, how do you know? Can they be supported differently? Are pupils confident to participate in the outdoor learning provision on offer or would they benefit from something different? How are all pupils supported and encouraged to participate wholeheartedly in outdoor learning?
- Evaluation: how do you evaluate your outdoor learning pupil programme and use feedback to shape future development opportunities? What evaluation methods will you use? How will the evaluation knowledge be used? How and to what extent are pupils involved in this process meaningfully?