Pupils and teachers reported a significant impact on engagement and behaviour linked to learning outside the classroom as part of an 18-month project.
Teachers also reported that they had more confidence to take lessons outside more often and three quarters of those who took part in the project noted a positive impact on pupils’ behaviour.
The project, run by the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom (CLOtC) and the Canal & River Trust, aimed to increase the contact and connection pupils had with the natural environment. Waterways, Wildlife and Wellbeing was also designed to support teachers at the schools in the West Midlands to take their learning outside the classroom.
More than 500 schools were involved and given free CLOtC membership, with many also given mentoring and training, whileothers selected to receive free face-to-face environmental activities from the Canal & River Trust during the 18-month project.
“Embedding learning beyond the classroom into school practice means all students and staff benefit from the wide range of positive health, wellbeing, learning, environmental, and other outcomes that come from regular, high quality, and progressive learning beyond the classroom.”
Dr Anne Hunt, CEO, CLOtC
After pupils had taken part in various activities, they reported an almost 60% increase in their wellbeing with almost every teacher stating that LOtC had a positive impact on pupil wellbeing.
Longford Park Primary was one of the schools that took part in the programme and they said: “Step by step online training was instrumental in allaying early concerns amongst staff around having time, resources, confidence and knowledge to deliver learning beyond the classroom.
“An extensive visits and outreach programme has been developed – trips to nearby parks, museums and farms, local nature walks and river studies plus visits from local authors, influencers and even a horse to inspire creative writing about a highwayman.”
Another school, Earlsden Primary, reported back: “The project has sparked change and new opportunities throughout the school but the next step is to formalise an action plan and embed this approach right across the taught curriculum as well as through extra-curricular experiences.”
Following the project, CLOtC and the Canal & River Trust are now looking to secure wider partnership support and funding to provide ongoing help for the schools involved in the West Midlands and also want to replicate the Waterways, Wildlife and Wellbeing project in other parts of the UK.
Dr Anne Hunt, CEO, Council for Learning Outside the Classroom (CLOtC) said: “As this project shows, embedding learning beyond the classroom into school practice means all students and staff benefit from the wide range of positive health, wellbeing, learning, environmental, and other outcomes that come from regular, high quality, and progressive learning beyond the classroom.”
Read the full report here.
