Taking classes outside — it’s stimulating — but most of all — FUN!

‘We are actually learning — but not having to write anything!’

At Lifton Community Primary School we pride ourselves on the outdoor learning opportunities that we provide for our children. They allow the children to work in an environment away from the classroom, in a way which is stimulating and engaging. People often link outdoor learning to ‘forest school’, when really it can be as simple as taking an English lesson and delivering it outside.

At Lifton, Forest School sessions play a part in our outdoor learning provision, however, this is just a small part. Each class uses the outdoor environment at least twice a week. Some of the lessons which the children have taken part in have included using being outside to stimulate senses for atmospheric writing, creating their own games using sticks that they have found around the school site to practise times tables, creating puddles on a hot sunny day to gain a greater understanding of evaporation and lots more!

We try to take as much of our curriculum teaching as possible outside as well as providing outdoor after school clubs. These have included a gardening club where the children had the opportunity to plant and grown their own vegetables and a science outside club looking for mini beasts and using microscopes to investigate. Children in Year 1 to Year 4 also receive weekly Forest School sessions which are delivered by a qualified Forest School practitioner. This gives the children the opportunity to learn how to use tools in a correct and safe manner, light fires safely, create shelters outdoors and provides them with a stimulus for learning.

We have regular ‘Special Outdoor Learning’ days for the whole school where the children are able to take part in a range of different activities including creating stories using story stones, making faces out of natural resources, toasting marshmallows and making hot chocolate on a campfire, using sticks to create 2D and 3D shapes and going on a bug hunt in our designated outdoor space. The children were all fully engaged throughout the last such event, with one child telling a member of staff: ‘This day is brilliant! We are actually learning but not having to write anything’.

The children all went home smelling of bonfire smoke and telling stories to their parents of what they had done during the day! Part of our recent OFSTED report stated that ‘Pupils remarked how learning was made fun, especially outside, where the forest school activities play a significant part in the uniqueness of your school’.

This year we have further enhanced our outdoor learning opportunities by entering a year 6 team in the Junior Ten Tors Challenge. This is an annual event which has been running for over 20 years, but it was the first time that a team from Lifton Primary School had entered a team to undertake the challenge.

The children are required to choose and plan their route prior to the event, navigate their way across Dartmoor, camping overnight and cooking their own food. Leading up to the challenge they received training on how to put up tents, light camping stoves, use a map and compass and they learned how to stay safe on Dartmoor. This training was run as an after school activity over the summer term. On the first day of the event the weather was perfect for walking across Dartmoor, slightly overcast but dry. However on day two, it was a completely different story, with constant rain and thick fog. The children kept each other motivated and spirits high throughout, which resulted in the successful completion of the challenge.

We have many plans to develop the outdoor learning further in our school including clearing an overgrown, unused pond in our designated outdoor space and creating a safe environment where the children will be able to take part in pond dipping. This will provide a wonderful resource for the school especially when learning about habitats in science.

Our long-term aim is to build a outdoor classroom within our school grounds to further enhance our provision of outdoor learning opportunities for all children at the school.

Carrie Honey

Outdoor Learning Leader