Eden Project - Taking education outdoors

The Cornish charity and tourist attraction is working with schools to help them understand the educational and social value of being outdoors. The overarching objective is to reverse the trend of children spending more and more time indoors.

Eden has worked with schools in the south west on this over the past 18 months, reaching more than 2,000 students through teacher training. They are now planning to take that work nationwide. The charity’s efforts are in response to the growing trend of children spending more and more time indoors. According to statistics from Play England, while 71 per cent of parents played outside their homes when they were children, only 21 per cent of their children are allowed that independence.

Modern children spend, on average, just 9 per cent of their time outside, a lot less than previous generations. More and more evidence is being produced to prove that being outdoors is a key factor in our happiness, health and our children’s wellbeing including their cognitive skills, imagination and self-esteem.

Sam Kendall, Eden’s School programme manager, said: “We are passionate about the power of learning and playing outdoors to enhance children’s experience of school.

“Some teachers and parents are reluctant to give children the freedom to get outside but we want to remove that fear and introduce a culture-shift in British schools. There are obvious health and social benefits of children playing outdoors but our message is that being outside can also enhance learning.”

Eden offers a range of teacher training programmes and staff development packages to support teachers in getting their pupils back outside. The project’s outdoor learning training sessions can help teachers build confidence and expertise for using the outdoor environment for teaching as well as helping schools rethink their grounds to best enable outdoor learning and play.

The team at Eden worked with Stephen Downes of nearby Lostwithiel School to work on ideas of how best to incorporate outdoor learning into lesson plans for the existing curriculum. Together, the Eden team and Stephen devised a plan that would incorporate outdoor activities into work his class were doing on storytelling in a way that enriched and complimented the classroom work.

Carolyn Huxley, headteacher at Lostwithiel School, said: “We have an amazing outdoor environment but it was completely under-utilised. We had already made a considerable investment in developing the physical spaces, but needed to move forward with incorporating it into the curriculum so we decided to work with Eden.

“The teachers have now given a commitment to delivering the curriculum outside wherever possible and maths, science, art, literacy and design technology lessons have all been held outdoors.

“We are also working with Eden to transform our break and lunchtimes by giving children the freedom to play. Within a contained environment, they can build dens, swing on ropes, climb trees, go down water slides - to name but a few. More than this, our teachers’ understanding of play, risk assessment and supervision has changed. This is learning in its most exciting and creative form and the children absolutely love it.”

Since opening in March 2001, Eden has welcomed more than 380,000 children on school visits and more than 370,000 students. Eden’s focus on the importance of outdoor learning and play can be seen throughout the work of the project as well as through the schools education team, with the ever-popular den building activities that take place in the project’s arena during the summer and the landscaping and design of the play areas and gardens around the site.

Further information
Teachers who are interested in learning more about how to incorporate outdoor learning into the curriculum, develop outdoor spaces and learn how to grow food in school grounds can attend a one-day workshop at the Eden Project on Friday September 28. The course costs £50 plus VAT for those who book before June 30, after which it costs £60 plus VAT. For further details visit edenproject.com