The outdoor classroom

By taking your class outside during lessons, you can add richness and depth to your pupils' learning. Learning outside can be more exciting and relevant and often benefits children who struggle with the rigidity and structure of classroom learning.

Outdoor learning helps young people to engage with the natural world and can encourage healthy attitudes towards food and exercise. The outdoor classroom is a challenging environment that motivates children to develop new skills and can help to raise achievement.

Where is the outdoor classroom?

Using the outdoor classroom doesn't mean a big trip - it can be as simple as exploring the school field. Why not give the following ideas a try:

• Investigate public spaces such as the local park
• engage with the community in the local town centre
• explore interesting buildings and architecture
• get closer to nature at the local river or allotments
• use the playground for running and movement
• arrange a visit to unusual local features such as a nearby airport or city farm.

'We went to a steam railway for our project about Brunel, it was really cool to see them in action,' Mikey, 10, Bristol.

Using the outdoor classroom

When visiting places beyond the school grounds, a few considerations can make your outdoor lesson run smoothly.

• Do you need to arrange parent volunteers in advance?
• Have you checked that the location is safe and suitable for your pupils?
• Have you got permission to be on the land?
• Do you need to plan a route to the site?
• What equipment, if any, will you need when you arrive?
• Do you need a contingency plan for bad weather?

Building an outdoor classroom

Spontaneous outdoor lessons are fun, but why not create a permanent space which can be used by pupils in a variety of lessons? Building ponds and conservation areas, creating vegetable patches and decorating outside reading areas have proved to be successful. Some schools have even created areas for keeping small animals, such as rabbits or chickens, where pupils share responsibility for looking after them.

Make sure pupils are involved in the planning process so that their ideas are included. Outdoor spaces needn't be expensive. Speak to local retailers and parents and see what can be donated. Or get the whole school involved by arranging a fundraising event.

Grass roots learning

Here are just a few ideas for outdoor lessons:

4 to 6 year olds:

• Head into the playground to find and investigate 'mini beasts'
• find a selection of leaves to be used for printing
• make rubbings and describe textures of items found outside.

7 to 10 year olds:

• Set up a 'weather station' and monitor wind and rain - collect and present the data in bar charts
• explore the sights, smells, sounds and feel of an outside area and use them as a basis for a poem or descriptive story
• plant seeds in various parts of the school grounds to investigate which are the best growing environments.

11 to 13 year olds:

• Pupils conduct traffic surveys and calculate average speeds
• investigate and suggest reasons for the design and layout of the local town centre - challenge pupils to redesign it, including their own ideas and improvements
• pupils estimate and measure perimeter and area of outdoor spaces.

Visit our useful links page for a range of websites to help you use the outdoor classroom.