{"id":6979,"date":"2017-06-07T07:10:03","date_gmt":"2017-06-07T07:10:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=6979"},"modified":"2017-06-07T07:10:03","modified_gmt":"2017-06-07T07:10:03","slug":"work-on-the-wild-side-a-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2017\/06\/07\/work-on-the-wild-side-a-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Work on the Wild Side \u2013 a review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Work on the Wild Side: Outdoor Learning and Schools<\/em> is a notdeadfish<\/em><\/a> report by Tash Niman and Anita Kerwin-Nye, in partnership with the English Outdoor Learning Council, the Institute for Outdoor Learning, the Association of Heads of Outdoor Learning Centres, Learning Away, and the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom. \u00a0Notdeadfish is a social change consultancy and you can download the report here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The report aims to demonstrate that those schools (that by any measure are leaders in the education system) place a high value on learning beyond the classroom. \u00a0It sets out to be\u00a0a contribution to the debate about the best approaches to ensuring all children and young people have high quality outdoor learning and residential experiences. \u00a0This is what notdeadfish<\/em> say about the report on their website:<\/p>\n

\"Work on the Wild Side attempts to debunk the myth that outdoor learning and residentials are not viable teaching mechanisms. \u00a0As accountability within schools increases and budgets decrease, it is easy to see how outdoor learning can slip down the agenda.\u00a0\u00a0This notdeadfish report compiles the evidence demonstrating how schools across the country are using outdoor learning to improve children\u2019s academic attainment and emotional well-being. \u00a0... \u00a0<\/strong>We found that outdoor learning is valued amongst teachers, pupils, parents and inspectors and that the skills learnt outdoors are transferable to the classroom and across the academic spectrum.\"<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The report\u00a0begins with four assertions which are probably reasonably widely accepted by those who know about such things, although the 3rd one is obviously not shared by all \"teachers, school leaders, parents\", as the report clearly demonstrates. \u00a0The assertions are:<\/p>\n

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  1. that children and young people benefit from being outside has almost universal agreement.<\/li>\n
  2. that not all children and young people are spending as much time outside as they should is also well evidenced.<\/li>\n
  3. teachers, school leaders, parents and others with an interest in education generally support the principle that schools have a key role in ensuring that all children and young people benefit from being outdoors \u2013 from outdoor learning, to residentials away from home, to more time outside the classroom.<\/li>\n
  4. at a time of restricted curricula, reduced school budget, high accountability frameworks and a context in which school leaders are hyper aware of \u2018risk\u2019, in every sense of the word, there is a justified fear that schools might deprioritise outdoor learning.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The approach was a novel one; it was [i] to take those\u00a0UK primary and secondary schools with the highest Progress 8 scores, and the winners of the Pupil Premium Awards, and summarise what they said about residentials and outdoor learning in their external prospectuses and websites, and [ii] to look at what inspectors said about the same topic in their most recent Ofsted reports on schools they deemed to be outstanding.<\/p>\n

    The report is a useful summary of recent activity. For example:<\/p>\n

    \"Recent research has found that outdoor learning has a positive impact both academically and personally. The GLA (2011) released findings stating that when children spent time in nature, there was an improvement in both mental health and scientific learning. These findings were replicated by Fuller, Powell and Fox (2016) who conducted a three-year project in which they found that visiting outdoor residential centres led to an increase in pupil\u2019s confidence as well as academic improvement. The benefits are not restricted to individual development: research has found that outdoor learning impacts how pupils work and socialise with peers (Christie, Higgins & McLaughlin, 2014, Learning Away, 2015). Leaving the classroom not only benefits pupils, but teachers as well. Natural England (2016) found that outdoor learning had a positive impact on teaching delivery as well as their personal health and wellbeing.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    There are also extracts from York Consulting\u2019s evaluation of Learning Away's #BrilliantResidentials<\/em> campaign, recent Ofsted reports from schools it deems outstanding, and the final report from the Natural Connections Demonstration Project. \u00a0For example, their\u00a0comments that Learning Away Residentials:<\/p>\n