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Outdoor Learning

“Let nature be your teacher.”  William Wordsworth

At Hinchley Wood Primary School, we aim to give our pupils opportunities to take their learning outside of the classroom, giving them a real world context where they can apply their learning. Outdoor learning enables pupils to build on problem-solving and communication skills as well as enabling them to develop resilience, independence and compassion for our world.  Research has shown that increased exposure to nature and the outdoors directly correlates with improved self-regulation, risk management and decision making. We aim for outdoor learning to enhance and build upon our school values of confidence, determination, consideration, enthusiasm and independence. These values are taught through the use of our Woodland and Allotment areas, reminding them about the importance of sustainability as well as helping them use teamwork and communication skills when using our on-site orienteering course. We hope to support and encourage the pupils of Hinchley Wood Primary school to connect with nature and reflect on how their choices, no matter how small, can make a difference to our ever-changing world.

Research has shown that outdoor learning is ‘…an approach used to enrich learning, enhance school engagement and improve pupil health and wellbeing.’ (Council for Learning Outside the Classroom).

As a school, we value the impact outdoor learning has on pupil’s wellbeing. The natural world offers pupils an opportunity to develop key emotional skills through adventure and play, allowing them to regulate stress and reset in a healthy environment.

Woven throughout areas of our enquiry-based curriculum, we aim to use the outdoors to enrich pupil’s learning and enhance their experiences to ensure that the pupils of Hinchley Wood Primary School become successful in learning more and remembering more. Through careful planning, we aim for our topics to become interlinked with the outdoors through topics and themes such as sustainability and climate change, providing our pupils with opportunities to have a greater understanding of their future and how they can use their knowledge and skills to look after our common home.

(Institute for Outdoor Learning)

 “If we want our pupils to move mountains, we first have to let them get out of their chairs” Nicolette Sowder