Student Outcomes and Natural Schooling: Pathways form Evidence to Impact Report 2016

Over the past ten years there have been five significant reviews conducted around the focus of children learning in natural environments in the UK and further abroad (Rickinson et al. 2004; Malone 2008; Gill 2011; Dillon & Dickie 2012; Fiennes et al. 2015). All these reviews identified significant evidence that outdoor learning can, and has made, a significant impact on improving children’s quality of life. These reviews coincide with a time when there is evidence that childhoods are dramatically changing, and children are experiencing limited opportunities to be outdoors in formal or informal learning settings, with consequent negative effects. The evidence especially reveals that lack of exposure to natural environments denies children the opportunity to develop understandings and experiences that will have a long term impact on the quality of their lives, particularly in relation to their physical health and wellbeing and ‘character capabilities’ such as application, self-regulation, empathy, creativity, and innovation, and their capacity to be successful learners and active contributing members for a sustainable society. This report responds to an urgency to address this social predicament; the childhood disconnect from nature and importance of learning in natural environments, with a view of encouraging policy makers to recognise the value of outdoor learning and the opportunities that it provides to overcome these contemporary challenges to children’s education, health, wellbeing and future success in life.